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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29339250">Desolation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter139/pseuds/hunter139'>hunter139</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hunter 139's multiverse of stories [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Aliens vs Predators Series - Various Authors, Dead Space (Video Games), Halo (Video Games) &amp; Related Fandoms, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Metroid Series, Star Wars - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Based off a deleted Halo 3 Machinima, Fights, Hallucinations, Mainly OC Cast - Freeform, Multiverse, Mystery, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Suspense, or are they?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:26:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,398</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29339250</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter139/pseuds/hunter139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An ODST awakes in a Pelican crash site on an unknown planet and tries to uncover the fate of his squad. Instead he uncovers something better left buried. Based off of an old Halo 3 machinima. Multicrossover.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hunter 139's multiverse of stories [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1467655</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is based off of the story from an old Halo 3 machinima called Desolation (which for the life of me, I cannot find anywhere on the Internet, I think it might have been deleted).</p>
<p>I'm going to reconstruct the story, partially from memory (please note some of these events are likely out of order and/or missing something) but also with some added details and dialogue.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 1</p>
<p>Awakening with a throbbing headache, ODST private Philips sat up to find himself next to a crashed Pelican in the middle of a narrow canyon. Dressed in his custom painted ODST armor (consisting of an orange stripe painted on the top of his helmet and on each of his shoulders) Philips made a quick system check and found that most of his gear was intact, but he couldn't raise his squad on the radio.</p>
<p>Groaning in pain, he struggled to his feet, grabbing his BR55 battle rifle in the process. Finding himself close to a stream, Philips ran over to the water's edge, ripping off his helmet, scooping up refreshing water and downing it in massive gulps to soothe his dehydration.</p>
<p>Midway through his drink, a tingling at the back of Philips' neck alerted him to a presence that was standing right behind him. A figure clad in pale green armor was standing right behind him, but when Philips spun around to look, the figure was gone.</p>
<p>Confused, Philips put his helmet back on and took stock of his surroundings.</p>
<p>"What happened? Where am I?" The question lingered in the air before it all came back to him.</p>
<p>Earth had been hit. The Covenant had made landfall at New Mombasa. The <em>UNSC Say My Name </em>had been the ship to launch a counter attack of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers at a Covenant Assault Carrier hovering over New Mombasa.</p>
<p>Unlike most of the ODSTs who had been deployed in SOEIV drop pods, Philips and his squad had been deployed in a Pelican, to serve as a backup supply carrier. The pilots were a couple of crazy bastards, sending the bird into a nose dive from orbit, putting it within a kilometer from the Covenant Carrier. This proved to be their undoing as the Carrier made an in-atmosphere slipspace jump to god-knows-where, pulling the Pelican in with it.</p>
<p>Due to the lack of a slipspace drive, the Pelican reverted to realspace in orbit over an unkown world with damaged engines. 'That explains how we crashed here,' Philips thought, 'but not where everyone is.'</p>
<p>Scouring the crash site for his squad mates, Philips was surprised to find that there was no trace of them. It was rather eerie. "Doc?" He called out, "Michael? Captain? Where are you?"</p>
<p>Silence greeted him. Walking around the Pelican, Philips felt the same sensation of being watched yet again. The figure in green armor was standing on top of a hill observing him, but as soon as the ODST turned in that direction, he had disappeared yet again. Feeling disconcerted, despite the lack of any sort of visible threat, Philips pondered on what he should do next.</p>
<p>Choosing to explore further from the crash site, Philips came across a cave near the Pelican's engines and went exploring through it. He quickly found something that he wasn't expecting.</p>
<p>"Floodlights?" This was surprising, considering that the valley the Pelican had landed in was completely deserted. At any rate, why would they be sitting in a random cave? Guided by the lamps, Philips found an exit to the cave, but as soon as he stepped back into the sunlight, his head started pounding. Groaning Philips fell to his knees, when all of a sudden, the world took on an orangish tinge.</p>
<p>Everything in his vision had blurred in this color. Standing up, Philips checked his VISR system, but he found it nonfunctional, which was odd considering it had been working fine several minutes ago. The most shocking development however, was that Philips was no longer alone.</p>
<p>Standing near the canyon wall were two figures locked in a heated conversation. One man dressed in thin purple armor was holding a shotgun at a man dressed in similar armor, only his was colored in a dark blue sheen.</p>
<p>The purple figure was spouting off really weird accusations, while the blue guy was telling him to calm down. The purple figure responded, "You killed them. I won't let you take them from me." before firing his shotgun into the other man's chest, killing him.</p>
<p>Philips had watched the whole thing, deeply unnerved by the events unfolding around him. The orange tint created a rather surreal display, and given the headache he had just experienced, the ODST was wondering if this was some kind of dream or vision. It was at that moment that the purple figure noticed him.</p>
<p>"You? Who are you? What are you doing here?"</p>
<p>Philips' training kicked in as he raised his battle rifle and pointed it at the man's head. "Sir, you need to drop your weapon and stand down." He commanded. The figure softly laughed at this order and started walking towards the ODST.</p>
<p>"You're with them, aren't you?" The man babbled, causing Philips to realize that this guy wasn't interested in talking things out. This man was a threat, one that needed to be put down. Philips pulled the trigger... and nothing happened. Reflexively, he pulled the trigger again, only to have the same result. Looking at his ammo counter, the soldier was alarmed to see that he had no rounds left, but he had a full magazine a minute ago!</p>
<p>"Shit."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the shotgun guy was still rambling, "You're trying to kill me. You killed them all, didn't you?" The man was a few feet from Philips, who noticed the military grade shotgun leveled at his chest.</p>
<p>"Sir-" Philips was interrupted by a flash of light and blinding pain as the man put a shotgun shell into his chest. Coughing and falling into a crouching position, Philips put one hand over his chestplate and was alarmed to find that his glove came back soaked with blood.</p>
<p>Turning back to look at the man in front of him, Philips uttered, "You Bastard."</p>
<p>The man's voice took on a disturbingly demonic tone as he responded: "<strong>Stay away from us.</strong>" before slamming the butt of his shotgun into Philips' helmet. As the ODST hit the ground, the orange tint from his eyes disappeared as did his attacker.</p>
<p>Grunting, Philips sat up and looked around in confusion. Everything was back to its normal color and the world looked no different than it had before.</p>
<p>"Wha-what just happened?" He asked confused. Retrieving his battle rifle, he found that the ammo counter now read 30. He had apparently fired off a couple of bursts from the gun. But how?</p>
<p>"I remember having bullets, but-ah, this doesn't make any sense."</p>
<p>Putting his hand to his chestplate, Philips was surprised to find that the armor was completely unmarked. The ice cold pain that had been seeping through his chest had disappeared and even his glove was completely clean.</p>
<p>"No wound. No blood."</p><hr/>
<p>
  <em>I need this to be myself</em><br/>
<em>It feels like I need some help</em><br/>
<em>It's too late to save myself</em><br/>
<em>Or it's just in my head</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Now it's got a hold of me</em><br/>
<em>I don't think I can make it through this</em><br/>
<em>Now it's got a hold of me</em><br/>
<em>The less I do the more it makes no sense</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Now it's got a hold of me</em><br/>
<em>I don't think I can make it through this</em><br/>
<em>Now it's got a hold of me</em><br/>
<em>The less I do the more it makes no sense</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The song is "Angels with Dirty Faces" by Sum 41. It played at the end of the first episode so I decided to put it here.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>AN: Just to be clear, the first 3 episodes will focus on the ODST's journey, the crossover stuff will come in afterward.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 2</p><p>Log 22 of ODST Jacob Philips, 105th Division. Date: Unknown. Location: Unknown.</p><p>"It's been 12 hours since I woke up from the crash. I did a little exploring during that time and I came across floodlights and equipment. After that I saw... well, I don't really know how to explain it. So let's just move on."</p><p>"I've scoured every inch of the crash site, but I still haven't found the rest of my squad. I'm assuming that they were scattered during the crash." Philips walked up to the top of the hill that overlooked the way out of the valley.</p><p>"So, I'm going to go and find them."</p><p>Log End.</p><p>Beginning the long march through the wilderness, Philips eventually arrived at the fissure that broke through to the other side of the rock wall. He had discovered this passage during his scouring of the rest of the valley after the events that had happened yesterday. After canvassing the whole gorge and finding nothing, the ODST private had taken a brief nap in the ruined Pelican, before deciding to venture further into this unknown world.</p><p>Gathering all the supplies he could find, Philips had stuffed them in his backpack and was now paying the price for it. He had marched with heavier loads in basic training, but never this far or for this long.</p><p>The environment wasn't helping his mood. Though there were plants growing and breathable atmosphere, there was a noticable lack of any other fauna. The whole planet felt completely deserted which was rather disconcerting.</p><p>After walking for what felt like an eternity after going through the fissure, Philips found himself on a relatively flat plateau. Most of the greenery was gone, replaced by stone and dirt. Thankfully, Philips discovered a Mongoose ATV lying against a boulder, and after doing a quick check, found that it had been from the Pelican and was almost completely undamaged.</p><p>'At least I don't have to walk anymore.' He thought as he set to work patching the few things that had been broken during the ATV's fall. Thankfully, most of the damage was superficial and soon the Mongoose was ready. Lashing his backpack to the rear of the vehicle, Philips drove off through the wilderness, enjoying the quick ride in spite of himself.</p><p>After another hour of travelling, the ODST came across the first signs of actual civilization on the planet: a network of metal fortifications, looking exactly like a UNSC military base (minus the notable decals). As Philips explored the interior, he was surprised to find that the computer systems were still working, despite the fact that the area was abandoned. Trying to access the databanks proved fruitless however, so Philips continued towards a group of crates surrounding a cliff.</p><p>Dismounting his Mongoose, Philips discovered an entry through the crates only to find that there was nothing here. Suddenly, everything flashed (<strong>AN: I'm just going to call these events, <em>flashes, </em>considering that was the effect in the series</strong>) into the same orange color from yesterday and once again, Philips found that he was not alone.</p><p>A whole crowd of people were gathered in the middle of the courtyard overlooking the cliff, none of whom were looking at the ODST behind them. Their attention was at the edge of the drop, where a woman in a purple suit was perched on the edge of the cliff, while a man in yellow armor was speaking to her.</p><p>"Ashley, what are you doing?" He asked with concern and fear.</p><p>"I can hear her. She's in my mind and she wants us dead." The woman, Ashley, replied in an unusually quick pace.</p><p>"Ashley-"</p><p>"Stay away from me!" Ashley said to the man in front of her. He chose his next words carefully.</p><p>"Ok, but we're here to help you. You need some help." He said consolingly, but Ashley wouldn't listen.</p><p>"I won't let them take her from me." And before anyone could react, Ashley hurled herself off of the cliff without a sound. The man who had been talking to her rushed to the edge, as another couple of onlookers came up right beside him.</p><p>"I can't believe it," the yellow-armored man whispered, his voice husky, "she's dead."</p><p>"Hey man, come on Kevin," said the guy to his left, "It's not the end of the world, it's only-" He trailed off when he noticed that the man in front of him was crying, "I-I'm sorry."</p><p>"It doesn't matter," Kevin replied, as the tears poured down his face, "She's gone. She's gone."</p><p>The world flashed again as the orange tint disappeared, leaving Philips alone in the courtyard. Mulling over the events he had just witnessed, especially Kevin's dialogue and reaction, the ODST could reasonably conclude one thing about this whole scenario.</p><p>"He loved her."</p><p>Whoever Kevin was, he had clearly been in love with Ashley. But that was the only thing he could reasonably determine. He still had no idea what the hell they were talking about, or any idea as to what happened in this world.</p><p>Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, Philips returned to his Mongoose and soldiered on. Finding a gravel pathway, the ODST made his way down until he came across a couple of unmarked concrete military bunkers. Dismounting from the ATV, Philips was surprised to find that the front gate into the main building was wide open, and as he stepped through the threshold, another flash occured.</p><p>Once again tinted orange, Philips saw that the bunker alarms were blaring and the fortifications were now inhabited by soldiers, one of whom was speaking into a computer panel on the catwalk overlooking the courtyard.</p><p>"Sarah, I need you to open the gate right now."</p><p>"But commander," a female voice replied, "wouldn't that break protocol? It was by your decree after all."</p><p>"Damnit Sarah," the commander yelled, "We don't have time for this! Open the fucking gate!"</p><p>A soldier interrupted the commander, "Sir, she's broken through."</p><p>"Shit. Open fire!" Right as the commander gave the order, a tank rolled into view from a tunnel that led deeper into the complex. A soldier on a mounted turret started shooting the tank, but the armored vehicle retaliated with it's main cannon, killing the soldier instantly.</p><p>The tank's rampage continued unabated for a time, until a whistling noise was heard. The commander and a squad of soldiers were perched in a watchtower, carrying rocket launchers. All of which were pointed at the vehicle.</p><p>"Take this you fucking bitch!" The commander shouted as the squad unleashed a salvo of rockets. An instant later, the squad was blown to bits by the tank. The flash ended at that exact moment, allowing Philips to take in everything that he had seen.</p><p>The questions just kept piling up, and the ODST had no idea how to answer them. Surveying the damaged facility, Philips could see signs of a battle, like he had just witnessed, but no bodies and no sign of that tank.</p><p>Moving along through the complex, Philips found an entrance into the building and walked down the stairs into the basement. Arriving in a well-lit hallway, he slowly walked through it but stopped when he heard voices.</p><p>"What the... Hello? Is anyone there?"</p><p>The cacophony of whispering voices continued and no matter how much he tried, Philips couldn't comprehend what they were saying. Continuing onwards, Philips reached a corner in the hallway, turning to the right, the whispers fading as he did so.</p><p>And Doc was right there.</p><p>In the middle of a closed room, underneath a light fixture, was the prone form of the squad medic. Dressed in standard ODST BDU, Doc had custom painted his shoulder pads with white paint and a red cross within the center of it.</p><p>"Doc! Are you all right?" Philips rushed over to the body lying down in front of him, checking his vital signs and manually checking his pulse. "Oh God, Doc." Philips stood up, looking down at his fallen comrade.</p><p>"He's dead." The lights flickered off and turned on a second later. Doc's body had disappeared, but Philips became aware of heavy breathing coming from behind him, causing him to turn around.</p><p>"Doc?"</p><p>He was standing there, breathing heavily. His visor was unpolarized and Philips could see the blank look in the medic's eyes. "Doc, are you alright?" Doc lunged at Philips, grabbing him by the neck with both hands.</p><p>"Doc, what are you doing?-agh!" Philips choked out, gasping for air. But the medic's only response was to tighten his grip on Philips.</p><hr/><p>Doc's POV. An unknown amount of time earlier.</p><p>"Damn. Fucking communications are blocked." Doc sighed to himself, then looked up towards the concrete bunker in front of him. "I might as well see if that place has a radio."</p><p>Running up through the gate, Doc quickly took in the damaged environment, realizing that any communication equipment would likely be beyond repair given the level of damage this place had sustained.</p><p>Stumbling onto a passage that led into the interior of the base, Doc travelled down through it and into the basement, coming across the hallway that his squadmate would discover later.</p><p>As Doc shuffled through the hallway, a cacophony of whispers bombarded his senses, yet he was unable to make out what they were saying.</p><p>"Hello? Is someone here?"</p><p>The whispers died down, allowing Doc to make out another noise: crying emanating from the room at the end of the hallway. Cautiously advancing in case this turned out to be a trap, Doc turned the corner and saw a figure in green armor crouched on the floor. The sobbing was coming from this man and Doc cautiously approached him.</p><p>"Excuse me, Sir? I'm a doctor, do you require assistance?"</p><p>The figure stopped crying as Doc spoke, and an inhuman howling roar filled the room. The lights flickered off and back on, and the figure had disappeared. Panicking Doc spun around and saw the man he was just talking to, standing right behind him, his hands having become claws.</p><p>The figure in green lunged at Doc, as everything went black.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's been brought to my attention that I didn't clarify the name of the machinima this is based on and for that I apologize. So to be clear, the name of the machinima is the same as the title of this story: Desolation. It's a Halo 3 machinima and the first 3 chapters are based on what I can remember from the first 3 episodes of the series.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 3</p>
<p>Doc and Philips stood on a beach on the coast of Zanzibar, looking at the ocean and discussing their lives.</p>
<p>"You're mother was a colonel in the UNSC Marine Corps, right?" Doc asked.</p>
<p>"Oh yeah, but she disappeared when I was 11." Philips replied, "Colonel Elisa Philips. You know I've always wondered what happened to her. Honestly, that's part of the reason I joined the ODSTs, but I've never known what happened to her."</p>
<p>"Would you like to find out?" A deep voice droned out. Surprised, Philips looked around and was surprised to find that Doc had disappeared. Exploring the beach, Philips reached the entrance to the seawall, and saw a figure standing there.</p>
<p>"Oh god, it's you." Then everything went white.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Back in the basement, Philips was standing over Doc's corpse again, this time retrieving his knife from Doc's neck. "Oh god, why? Why would you do that, Doc..." He uttered between bouts of coughing. Philips then noticed the trail of dried blood that marked Doc's forehead and cheek. He had been dead for some time now.</p>
<p>"That wasn't Doc. He would never try to strangle me." Philips bent down to retrieve Doc's dog tags and M6C/SOCOM magnum. "He must have been... possessed or something."</p>
<p>Seeing no reason to stay here, Philips went back upstairs and got back on his Mongoose. Once again on the road, Philips came across a lake and decided to stop. He felt the need to wash Doc's blood off of his armor, and he needed to refil his water supplies anyway.</p>
<p>Pulling his pack from the back of the Mongoose, Philips waded into the lake until he was ankle deep. Bending down to fill his canteens, Philips finished that and got to work scrubbing the blood off of his hands. When he had finished that, he stood up and looked forward. "Jesus!"</p>
<p>Right into the terrified face of the man in front of him. Clad in purplish armor, the most surprising aspect of this man was the fact that he was transparent. "Who are you?" Philips carefully asked.</p>
<p>"Help me." The man asked, his voice cutting out like a radio in static.</p>
<p>"Wait, What?"</p>
<p>"Don't let them take me!" the man screeched in fear.</p>
<p>"Don't let who take you?" Philips responded. The man didn't reply. Instead he turned to his left and screamed in terror before vanishing. Another flash erupted, though this time it was rather different. Philips was no longer at the lake he had been standing in, and it almost felt like he was in a state of astral projection.</p>
<p>He was inside a facility, either one deep underground or possibly inside a space station. Alarms were blaring as soldiers and scientists bustled to and fro between their work stations.</p>
<p>"Status report." Someone, the commander of the facility presumably, yelled. "Sir, the breach has been contained, but we don't know for how long." A soldier replied, staring at his computer screen, "We need to evacuate the facility, torch and burn everything."</p>
<p>"No!" The commander shouted, "We can't leave the specimens behind! We've put too much time and effort into them." He was interrupted by panicked shouting from the other end of the room.</p>
<p>"Sir, they've broken the quarantine!" "Seal off the bulkheads!" The commander ordered, "Don't let them-" Whatever he was about to say was cut off when the power went out. A loud, inhuman roar erupted in the darkness, followed by the sounds of screaming.</p>
<p>The flash ended at that moment, and Philips found himself back in the water. However he wasn't where he had been before. "What the hell?"</p>
<p>He was standing in front of the beach where he had spoken to Doc, with the seawall and windmill right behind it.</p>
<p>"How the hell did I get here?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm sorry this chapter was shorter than the first two, but this is where my memory of the series starts to get a little fuzzy. I'm fairly certain I got the gist of the most important events but I can't be too sure on that.</p>
<p>At any rate, from here on out the rest of the story is mine and the crossover will be completely started in the next chapter.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 4</p><p>To say Philips was confused would be an understatement. After that earlier flash, he had found himself in the exact same area he had been in when he was younger, right down to the cracks in the seawall.</p><p>"What the fuck is going on?"</p><p>The ODST felt like he was losing his grip on reality. Or maybe it was the planet. There was clearly something off about this world, but until he found evidence, Philips had no idea what he was going to do.</p><p>Pushing his musings aside, Philips made his way towards the ground entrance of the sea wall, only to find that the way had been barricaded off. Retracing his steps, the ODST found the stairwell that took him onto the sea wall and climbed up to the catwalk.</p><p>Coming across the path through the cliff, Philips quickly checked it but found that it was also blocked off (though he wasn't too surprised considering it was the same when he was first there). Moving back onto the catwalk, Philips paused when he heard a scuffling behind him.</p><p>Spinning around, he saw a body in green armor lying dead in the entrance that he had just passed through. Before the shock of that had worn off, the light fixture above the corpse flickered, leaving the green armored man standing in the doorway for a second before the lights flickered again and he was gone.</p><p>Now really disturbed, Philips took off sprinting along the catwalk, not stopping until he had reached the outpost near the windmill. Pausing to catch his breath, the ODST's mind tried to process what he had just seen. Finding no satisfying explanation, Philips tried to forget about it and began searching for a way into the power plant.</p><p>Choosing a path that took him through the windmill, Philips strolled through the upper levels of the catwalks, still utterly disturbed by how similar this place was to where he had been before.</p><p>Going to the left, the ODST entered the plant, and found the first major difference between this location and the one on Earth. A dark blue alien artifact of some sort sat in the center of the main room, traces of energy writhing around it.</p><p>The design looked Covenant at first glance, but Philips quickly realized that the artifact wasn't Covenant due to the red electricity encricling it. Philips walked down the stairs and strolled up to the strange device. A part of him knew that he shouldn't even go near it but something about it was drawing him towards it, and he didn't want to fight it.</p><p>When he was less than a foot from the device, Philips reached out and put his hand on the surprisingly smooth surface of the alien metal. Glyphs emerged on the device's surface and a bolt of energy erupted from the top. Philips felt another flash coming but this one was much different from the previous effects. His vision followed the energy beam as everything in his view blurred into white light.</p><hr/><p>He had a feeling of astral projection similar to the last flash, only this time he felt like he was being hurled across time and space. After a trip that lasted for what felt like an eternity, his vision cleared up and the ODST could finally take a good look at his surroundings.</p><p>To say he was shocked at what he saw would be a huge understatement.</p><p>Philips had arrived in what appeared to be a break room on a UNSC warship (he'd been in enough to know what their layout was), but what really shocked him was the current occupants. Four people were currently standing around the table; one was human, but the others were 3 alien species he had never seen before. All of whom were staring at him.</p><p>One looked exactly like a human female except for the unusual tentacle-like structures on her scalp and the fact that her (Philips assumed it was female) skin was blue. Dark energy was writhing all over her body and yet she still looked like a graceful warrior.</p><p>Another one also had blue skin and looked fairly human, but what differentiated this one from the other was the fact that it looked like a male, the skin tone was a slightly darker tinge than the previous creature and its eyes were completely red.</p><p>Despite the nightmare-inducing image of that red-eyed alien, the third unknown was by far the most intimidating. Standing at just over 7 feet tall, with smooth, almost reptillian skin, this monster stared at Philips with beady eyes. It's face made the ODST want to take back every nasty thing he had ever uttered about the faces of Covenant Elites. The creature's hair (assuming it was hair) was fashioned into dreadlocks that emerged from the creature's scalp.</p><p>All four of them were covered in some sort of armor and weapons (some that resembled the armor of a Spartan, now that Philips thought about it), and were pointing their weapons at him.</p><p>The tallest one stalked over to Philips and attempted to tear the battle rifle from his hands, only to find that its claws passed right through it.</p><p>"Dread, stand down!" the human ordered his huge colleague. 'Dread' backed off, seemingly bewildered by the ODST's intangibility. A confusion Philips could rightfully understand, for he was just as lost as they were.</p><p>The energy emanting off of her dissipating, the blue female started speaking in its own language, presumably asking him questions that he didn't have answers to. After a moment, Philips spoke up, interrupting the female in the process.</p><p>"Whoa, whoa! I have no idea what you're saying." He interjected before adding a question of his own, "Who are you people? And where am I?"</p><p>The human member of the group was about to answer when Philips felt a painful sensation all over his body, and quickly found himself back in the empty white vortex as he was drawn from where he was.</p><hr/><p>He came to, right next to the artifact that had sent him away, which now unleashed a wave of energy through the room, sending the ODST flying backwards. As Philips recovered, he noticed that something was emerging from the alien device.</p><p>Shadowy humanoid creatures erupted from the artifact, and and took up positions all over the room. Meanwhile a figure in green armor materialized in front of Philips, staring at the ODST.</p><p>"You should have left this alone, Jacob." The figure said in a deep tone.</p><p>"How do you know my name?" Philips asked, with a hint of fear creeping through his voice.</p><p>At that moment, he experienced yet another flash, though this time the world took on more of a reddish tinge. A loud and deep bass tone resonated from the artifact, filling the room and causing the ODST's skin to crawl.</p><p>Glowing yellow eyes appeared on the faces of each shadowy creature and on the face of the figure in front of him. "<strong>Kill Him.</strong>" the figure growled in a demonic voice, as the shadows started swarming towards him.</p><p>Philips ran past the horde, firing off bursts from his battle rifle, only to find that the rounds had passed right through his opponents. Spying an M12 Warthog down a large hallway, the ODST made a break for it as the shadows pursued him.</p><p>Pausing to hurl a grenade at the artifact, Philips was both relieved and astonished to see that a small blue explosion erupted from the side of the artifact. The creatures following him all ground to a halt as if hitting a brick wall.</p><p>Taking advantage of the window of opportunity, Philips jumped into the Warthog and hit the gas immediately, shooting out of the facility and emerging into rocky outcroppings. Several shadows pursued him, but they couldn't match the Warthog's speed and were left far behind. Shortly afterwards, the flash ended and everything returned to normal.</p><p>Despite all of that, Philips kept driving, wanting to put as much distance between him and those things as possible.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 5</p><p>Unknown location. 10 seconds after Philips' disappearance.</p><p>The members of Shadow Team had gathered around the spot where an ODST had 'magically' appeared on their ship and just as quickly disappeared. The squad leader; Thomas Kaleb (aka Shade) was the first of the team to speak.</p><p>"Gerald, what did we just see?" Shade asked.</p><p>A hologram of their AI appeared in the center of the room. A screen also appeared, playing back the last seconds of the ODST's appearance in slow motion.</p><p>"Given the nature of what just happened, he must have been experiencing some kind of dimensional displacement." Gerald explained, depicting the rapid disappearance of the UNSC soldier.</p><p>"You mean like what happened to that West kid?" Nye asked. A male Chiss, Nye was the youngest member of the team.</p><p>"An accurate assessment. Note how he rapidly disappears as if he's being pulled away by another force."</p><p>Aeian T'Reck (aka Fade) interjected with her own observation, "Whoever he was, he apparently lacked a translator. He said he couldn't understand any of us." The asari said, gesturing to the four aliens in the room.</p><p>N'cra (aka Dread) pointed to Gerald's display, specifically at the ODST himself, "Judging by the appearance of his armor, he might actually be an MIA soldier, considering that the design is out of date." The Yautja gave his own analysis to the situation, "Actually, given his response to seeing us, this guy might not even know that the Human-Covenant War ended decades ago."</p><p>"Then it's probably a good thing that he didn't see me." Thul replied. Towering over Dread by another foot, the Sangheili had been behind the ODST when he had appeared in the middle of the room.</p><p>"Whoever he is, he probably needs help." Shade said, "Gerald, has the Captain been alerted to the incident?"</p><p>"Indeed sir. He wants to debrief your squad in person." The AI responded.</p><p>"Tell him we'll be right there," The human replied as the squad filed out of the room. Fade paused to look at the image of the ODST one last time, getting a sinking feeling that Shadow Team would be the ones to find out what happened to him. With that, Fade turned away and followed her squad.</p><hr/><p>Unknown World. Several Hours later.</p><p>Philips had been driving nonstop for 6 hours, following the events at the power plant. The rocky terrain had eventually turned into a desert, and Philips finally stopped when he realized that he had no idea where he was going.</p><p>"Oh, fuck me." The ODST uttered angrily, looking around and seeing only sand in every direction. He checked the built-in GPS in both his armor and on the Warthog's dashboard, but he couldn't get a signal.</p><p>Philips was utterly lost in this desolate wasteland. Just as he thought about making camp until the next day, a glimmer of light caught his eye. Figuring that it might lead to somewhere habitable, Philips turned the Warthog towards where he had seen the glimmer and drove towards it. Half an hour later, he was overlooking ruins made of stone.</p><p>"Well, at least I found some kind of shelter." He said, trying and failing to keep his spirits up. Something about the design of this place told him that it hadn't been created by humans.</p><p>Another glimmer of light coming from the opposite side of the ruins interrupted his train of thought. Choosing to go around the ruins rather than the path through the center of them, which looked like a good place for an ambush, since an attacker would have the high ground and he would have no cover.</p><p>As he circled around the stone structure, Philips finally got a look at what he had been heading towards.</p><p>A crashed Covenant Phantom.</p><p>Though his body started flooding with adrenaline at the worrying prospect of having to fight Covenant forces on his own, Philips also felt a sense of relief. This was something tangible, something that he knew how to deal with. Unlike the ghosts or spirits or insanity or whatever the hell he had been dealing with earlier.</p><p>Dismounting the Warthog, Philips carefully made his way towards the wreck, scanning for any and all signs of movement. Finding nothing, Philips carefully entered the Phantom and scanned the place with his VISR. There was nothing except a few broken weapons, some empty crates and a small box full of plasma grenades. Grabbing a pair, Philips went back to his Hog and brought it closer to the crash site.</p><p>As he was scanning the area once again, a flash occured, this time in its normal orange tint. In the path between the ruins, near the entrance to what seemed to be a temple, a group of workers and archaeologists were busy moving equipment and artifacts to and from the dig site.</p><p>Weirdly, a group of soldiers was also standing guard near the entrance, almost as if they expected an attack from inside the temple. As Philips approached, he could make out conversations between several workers.</p><p>"Get this stuff packed and loaded, I want it shipped to the city by tomorrow morning." Someone, the foreman most likely, ordered. As most of the workers did as ordered, one approached the foreman.</p><p>"Sir, we found another of those artifacts." the worker said, "Well, get it out of there ASAP. You know how much they're paying us for those?" The foreman replied.</p><p>"You there, freeze!" At that moment, one of the soldiers noticed Philips and pointed his gun at him. The other soldiers behind him followed suit as several of the workers stopped to watch what was going on.</p><p>"Oh, shit." Philips muttered under his breath.</p><p>"Drop your weapon!" The closest soldier ordered. Checking his Battle rifle, Philips carefully let it drop in the sand and put his hands in the air. The soldiers circled him but none of them bothered to handcuff or disarm him further.</p><p>"Identify yourself." The lead soldier, a sergeant by the look of him, ordered.</p><p>"Private Jacob Philips, 105th ODST Division." Philips replied. As he said that, some soldiers began to lower their weapons and even the sergeant relaxed slightly, his eyes filled with curiousity.</p><p>"Philips? Are you related to Colonel Elisa Philips?" One soldier asked. Out of all the things he had seen or heard on this planet, nothing had shocked Philips more than this.</p><p>"How do you know my mother?" Philips asked, determined to learn what had happened to her. Just as he said that however, the ODST noticed the workers behind the sergeant moving something.</p><p>It was the same alien artifact he had encountered earlier.</p><p>"Would you like to know what happened to her?"</p><p>A demonic voice emerged from the sergeant, as Philips focused his attention back on him, he realized all the soldiers had gained glowing yellow eyes. One of the soldiers hit him in the face with the butt of his rifle, sending him sprawling towards the ground. The flash ended the second his head landed in the sand, leaving him alone once again.</p><p>Getting up, Philips' thoughts started racing at a thousand miles per minute. 'Who were those guys? What do they know about my mother? How do I find her? Did she have anything to do with this?' Philips looked towards the temple entrance, wondering if he would find any answers within.</p><p>"Well, it's a start."</p><p>As he reached the entrance way, a flicker of movement caught his eye and he looked towards the top of the temple. For a second, he could have sworn he saw something shimmering, but after checking his VISR, he saw nothing there.</p><p>Enthusiasm tempered slightly, Philips entered at a cautious pace, scanning everything he could see. Scattered all over the ground were strange glowing spheres, which the ODST had never seen before. Deciding to leave them be, Philips continued his search through the sandy temple, eventually coming across a central area with a stone platform partially buried under sand.</p><p>And the body of Michael was lying on top of it.</p><p>"Michael?" Philips ran up to the dais and looked over Michael's corpse. Two of his squadmates were now dead. Philips bowed his head in mourning and removed Michael's dog tags and sidearm. Turning away, Philips pulled out his combat knife and waited.</p><p>"I'm sorry, Michael."</p><p>Heavy breathing from behind him confirmed his suspicions. Having learned his lesson after finding Doc, Philips spun around and lunged at Michael, slashing at his squadmate's throat. Unfortunately, it appeared that whatever had possessed Doc had also learned its lesson.</p><p>Michael leapt out of the way of Philips' slash, before grabbing his arm and twisting it over his shoulder. Screaming, Philips dropped the knife and was hurled across the sandy floor. It seemed Michael's corpse still possessed his fighting skills, as Philips remembered all the times he had lost to Michael during combat training.</p><p>Rising to his feet, Philips pulled Michael's sidearm out, aimed and pulled the trigger, only to hear an empty <em>click. </em>Michael paused for a moment and Philips could swear that he saw his squadmate smirk behind his visor. Tossing the gun away, Philips reached for his BR, but Michael had already closed the gap and left him no room to aim.</p><p>Sporadic bursts of gunfire went off as the two struggled for the weapon. Philips managed to land a good hit by smashing the butt of his weapon into his friend's head, but Michael eventually knocked the gun out of his hands and punched him in the stomach hard enough to knock the breath out of him. Wheezing, Philips fell to the floor.</p><p>Michael turned to grab his sidearm and Philips reached for his own, only to realize that he had left it in the Warthog. Cursing himself for making such a rookie mistake, Philips made to move towards the battle rifle, but Michael's boot landed on his chest, preventing him from moving.</p><p>Putting a magazine into his M6C, Michael took aim, and Philips found himself staring down the end of his friend's gun barrel...</p><hr/><p>Michael's POV</p><p>An unknown amount of time earlier.</p><p>Michael was on top of the temple's roof, using his HUD to scan the crashed Phantom dropship. Seeing no signs of life, Michael climbed off of the roof and began making his way towards the crash site. He stopped when he heard whispering noises emanting from the temple entrance.</p><p>"What the hell?"</p><p>Turning towards the sound, Michael had to admit that it sounded strangly hypnotic, and found himself wanting to go towards the noise. He hesitated however, the rational part of his mind and military training kicking in. After a short subconscious battle, the rational part of him was willing to investigate the sound.</p><p>Entering the temple, Michael cautiously looked over every nook and cranny in case something hostile was hiding there. A bunch of strange greenish-blue orbs littered the ground, and while Michael was curious as to what they were, he was more curious about where the whispering was coming from.</p><p>Arriving near a dais in the middle of the temple, Michael saw a figure in green armor crouching down in the middle of it. Coming up behind him, Michael realized that the whispers were coming from him.</p><p>"Sir, what's going on? Who are you?" Michael asked the whispering man.</p><p>The lights flickered for a moment and the figure disappeared as a bloodcurdling howl started echoing through the room. Suddenly a throbbing pain caused Michael to clutch his head, drowning out any other sound and bringing him to his knees. The figure seemed to flicker in and out of existence as yelling entered his mind.</p><p>"<strong>THE DARKNESS MUST NOT BE BREACHED! THE SEAL MUST NOT BE BROKEN!</strong>"</p><p>Groaning in pain at the sound of the voices in his head, Michael looked around and realized a nearby orb was causing the pain. Retrieving his sidearm, Michael opened fire on the orb in question, shattering it after 3 shots but Michael kept pulling the trigger until his entire magazine was spent.</p><p>The pain quickly subsided, but the howling returned and the figure in green reappeared right in front of him. His hands had been replaced with large claws, and he lunged at Michael, causing everything to go black. The last thing he ever heard came from a demonic voice.</p><p>"You shouldn't have done that." The voice said, <em>*referring to shooting the orb*.</em></p><hr/><p>Philips stared at the gun in Michael's hand, oddly accepting of the fact that it would be the last thing he'd ever see. Before Michael could pull the trigger, a blue-white light burst into life behind him with a disturbingly familiar hissing noise.</p><p>Philips gasped when he saw what happened next.</p><p>Two prongs of bluish-white energy erupted from Michael's chest, causing him to lose his grip on his M6 as he was hoisted off his feet by the energy sword and the Spec Ops Elite that was holding it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 6</p>
<p>For a long moment, nobody moved, not Philips, not Michael and not the Elite. Then there was a hot boiling sound and Michael was split open between his head and right shoulder. This gave Philips enough time to reach for his battle rifle, and as the Elite tossed Michael aside, Philips fired several bursts at the alien soldier.</p>
<p>It's energy shields took the brunt of the damage and the Elite took cover and cloaked, disappearing into the darkness of the ruins. "Don't think you can hide, you alien bastard." Philips whispered as he triggered his VISR mode. Looking around, Philips managed to see the Elite's massive outline just as it came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck.</p>
<p>Knocking the battle rifle aside with its one free hand, the Elite then decloaked, red glowing eyes emitting from its helmet looking into the ODST's faceplate. As Philips waited for it to do to him what it had done to Michael, the alien started speaking to him in English.</p>
<p>"I mean you no harm."</p>
<p>"Bullshit," Philips said, "Your species has done nothing but routinely slaughter humanity for the better part of two decades. Why the hell would I believe you?"</p>
<p>In response, the Elite lowered the ODST back to the ground. As soon as the Elite released him, Philips dove to the side, scooped up his battle rifle and aimed it straight at the alien, who made no attempt to defend itself, or even move out of the way.</p>
<p>"If I had wanted you dead human, we would not be having this conversation." The Elite said, in a surprisingly eloquent voice. The slow delivery of his words cut through the adrenaline and into the rational part of his mind as Philips realized the truth of those words.</p>
<p>This Elite had probably been watching him the moment he had arrived at the ruins. The memory of a shimmering image on the roof of the temple stood out in Philips' mind as he realized that the Elite had been following him. It had saved him from the possessed corpse of Michael and it could have easily snapped his neck like a twig a moment ago.</p>
<p>Lowering his weapon, Philips asked the alien, "You want to be allies with me?" The Elite nodded. "Why?" He asked, still not trusting this Split-Faced bastard. "Because as your people say, human, we have bigger fish to deal with." A hint of what might have been fear seeped into the Elite's voice, as the ODST realized that it must have had similar encounters to what he had to deal with.</p>
<p>"What have you seen?" Philips asked, but before the Elite could respond, a low rumbling noise echoed through the temple. "They will be coming soon." The Elite said, a small trace of fear being the only hint that something was worrying him, "To the Phantom." He said as he exited the temple, Philips following close behind. A howling sound started erupting through the air as the Elite froze and looked around.</p>
<p>"Make haste, human! They will soon be upon us." The Elite started sprinting towards the crash site, as Philips struggled to keep up. As they reached the crash site, Philips saw what the Elite was so afraid of.</p>
<p>Shadow beings, similar to what Philips had encountered at the power plant, only these were more substantial, more detailed and much faster than the ones he had encountered. Philips realized the two of them would be unable to hide from the swarm of shadows for very long. Looking at the Elite, the ODST could tell that he was thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>"We need to get out of here." Philips said, pointing to the Warthog. The ODST leapt into the driver's seat while the Elite clambered up to the gunner position.</p>
<p>"You know how to work that thing?" Philips shouted over the howling.</p>
<p>"Just drive, human!" The Elite shouted as he pulled the triggers. A hailstorm of bullets erupted from the M41 LAAG, impacting several shadows. As Philips drove away, he was relieved to see that these creatures were killable at least, though fear flooded through him when he realized that these things could now appear outside of his flashes.</p>
<p>Philips made a break for the open desert, but found his path blocked off by more of those creatures, forcing him to go through the ruins. Shadows appeared on the rooftops and leapt towards the Hog, only to be cut down by heavy fire from the Warthog's chaingun.</p>
<p>"Get us out of here!" The Elite yelled over the roar of LAAG. Philips managed to find a path back onto the sands, but just before he passed the last ruined buildings, one of the shadows leapt off the roof and landed on the windshield. Philips paused for a second as he saw something different about this creature:</p>
<p>For a brief moment, the shadow disappeared and Philips could see that it looked like a human, only in a disgusting blue color and with weird glowing cybernetics all over its body. The creature smashed a hand through the windshield and tried to grab the ODST, Philips responded by pulling out his sidearm and fired 3 rounds at the abomination.</p>
<p>The creature died and it's corpse slid off the speeding Warthog, which had now entered the open desert and left those shadows far behind it. After driving for another hour, Philips brought the Hog to a screeching halt.</p>
<p>"Why are we stopping?" The Elite asked, still searching behind them with the chaingun.</p>
<p>"Well, I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no idea on where we are." Philips said in exasperation.</p>
<p>"We should keep moving," The Elite said, "And go where?" Philips responded angrily, dismounting the Warthog as the Elite did the same. The sun was slowly setting in the backdrop.</p>
<p>"It'll be nightfall soon enough," Philips said, pulling out his battle rifle, "And I'm not sure I feel comfortable sleeping in the same vicinity as a Split-Head." The ODST finished his statement as he aimed his battle rifle at the hulking figure behind him.</p>
<p>"Don't be a fool, human." The Elite said with a threatening undertone. "I could easily kill you right now, but we need to work together."</p>
<p>"Now, you see, that's actually what's bothering me." Philips was almost yelling now, "Why the hell would you be willing to work with a human?"</p>
<p>"Because the Covenant have betrayed us!" The Elite suddenly shouted, as Philips jumped in surprise. Calming down, the Elite lowered his voice again before speaking; "Before my lance and I were transported here, we intercepted a transmission from the Arbiter that proclaimed the Great Journey to be a fabrication."</p>
<p>Philips lowered his rifle slightly and looked at the Elite with curiosity as he continued speaking, "The Prophets also ordered the genocide of my race, just like they ordered yours. We are now of the same kind, human." The Elite finished his speech.</p>
<p>"And to top it all off, we're on an uncharted world filled with unknown hostiles." Philips responded, lowering his weapon as he did so. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." He finished with a whisper. Neither of them spoke for a long moment. Then the Elite broke the silence.</p>
<p>"We will make camp for the night, but we must leave by morning." He said, and the events of the last day finally caught up with the ODST as Philips realized how tired he was from all of that running. Joining the Elite in setting up some shelter near a rocky outcropping, Philips went to take a nap, making sure his sidearm was with him as he did so.</p>
<p>He woke up several hours later in the early morning, while it was still mostly dark in the desert. Philips looked around and found that his unusual comrade was keeping watch in the vast empty desert, occasionally pausing to gaze up at the stars and the natural ring orbiting the planet.</p>
<p>The ODST had to admit, the view was spectacular, as he followed the Elite's gaze into the sky. Coming up beside the alien, Philips cleared his throat to announce his presence to the Elite.</p>
<p>"Have you been up all night?" Philips asked. "I chose to keep watch in case we were ambushed." The Elite responded with a heavy tone. "Well, we have a few more hours until we need to get moving. I can stand watch while you get some sleep."</p>
<p>The Elite let off its version of a yawn as it looked over their campsite. "Very well, I'll rest for a few hours, but we must leave afterwards."</p>
<p>"We'll deal with that when we come to it." Philips said, "Get some sleep,-" The ODST stopped when he realized he had no idea what to call his new ally. The Elite caught the hint fairly quickly and offered his name.</p>
<p>"Mtan." He said. "Philips." The ODST replied, offering his own name. "You just get some sleep, Mtan."</p>
<p>As the Elite retired for the night, Philips took his job and kept scanning the dunes for any sign of life. He was the only lifeform in the area... well, him and Mtan. The ODST's gaze drifted towards the sleeping Elite, wondering how his life had come to this: working alongside one of the killers of humanity.</p>
<p>Though it's not like he had much of a choice.</p>
<p>Whatever was going on on this planet was clearly too big to handle alone. It was obvious that the Elite- no, Mtan had dealt with something worse than the ODST had, if he was really willing to work with a human.</p>
<p>Philips had no idea what the terms, Arbiter, Prophets and Great Journey meant to the religious alien, but he couldn't believe that a simple transmission or crisis of faith would easily undo 27 years of hatred in the honor-obsessed warrior.</p>
<p>He might be able to kill Mtan in his sleep, though he doubted the Spec Ops would be taken that easily. And as much as working with an Elite was making him uneasy, Philips was relieved to know he wasn't going insane, and that he actually had something of an ally now.</p>
<p>Wondering if Mtan had also seen any of these flashes, another one happened not two seconds after he started thinking about it. Through an orange filter, Philips could see a convoy of trucks less than a mile away, but he had no idea where they were going. Suddenly, one of the trucks exploded in a ball of fire.</p>
<p>A tank had appeared over a dune on a perpendicular path to the convoy and was now unleashing hell on them. The explosion of another truck blasted debris towards the ODST's position, who dove out of the way to avoid it.</p>
<p>As Philips recovered, he realized that a portable radio had landed near him, and even more miraculously, it was still working as a stream of panicked orders and screaming emerged from the speaker.</p>
<p>
  <em>"God damn it, she's found us!"</em>
</p>
<p><em>"What do we do? What do we-"</em> *another explosion followed by static*</p>
<p>
  <em>"Everyone, retreat to the city, NOW!"</em>
</p>
<p>The trucks made a beeline through the desert as explosive shells followed them. When the tank's targets finally got out of range, the armored cannon turned its attention towards the few survivors of its rampage, most of whom were lying on the desert floor, bleeding, or stumbling as they tried to run away.</p>
<p>The tank's main cannon fired on the few wounded survivors, reducing them all to bloody chunks of flesh. The flash ended at that moment, and Philips found that his vision's return seemed to coincide with the sunrise. Shaking his head to clear the nausea of what he witnessed, the ODST saw something glinting in the sun, and he quickly ran over to retrieve it.</p>
<p>Finding a small flat computer screen resembling a TacPad, Philips tried accessing the contents, but all he found was a map of the region. Frustrated by the lack of information, Philips almost hurled the pad away in anger, when he realized that there was a city nearby this location.</p>
<p>"What did you find?" Philips jumped when Mtan's voice came up behind him, and he turned to look at his ally.</p>
<p>"A data pad. It doesn't have much to go on, but it does have GPS coordinates to a nearby city." Philips said. Mtan nodded in understanding.</p>
<p>"Then that is where we'll go."</p>
<hr/>
<p>As the Warthog departed, a figure stood on the rocky outcropping, watching the newfound allies as they made their way towards the city. As the Warthog disappeared over the dunes, the figure allowed herself a small grin.</p>
<p>Things were going as planned.</p>
<p>There had been some unpredictable and unintended variables: The Covenant Phantom had been drawn in unintentionally, and the ODST's brief cross-dimensional displacement had been an unexpected and rather unwelcome turn of events.</p>
<p>However, the plan was now back on track and soon she would be free. The figure vanished, leaving behind an empty, desolate wasteland once again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 7</p>
<p>With the help of the GPS, it didn't take them too long to find their destination. The city loomed in front of them, towering skyscrapers heavily contrasting against the backdrop of a vast empty desert. The Warthog had parked just outside the city limits on a paved road as the occupants marvelled at the sight.</p>
<p>"So this is where the coordinates have led us?" Mtan asked, but Philips was silent. "Hu- Philips?" No response. The ODST just stared at the skyline, jaw dropped and mind overworked as he tried to process the location in front of him.</p>
<p>This was the city he was born in and had grown up in. Before the Covenant had reduced it and the colony world to glass. Yet here it was, unmarked by any form of damage. There were some differences: Besides being completely deserted, the signs depicting the city's name (New Sanctuary) were blanked out, and the streets were far cleaner than what they had actually been, but other than that, this was his home.</p>
<p>"Philips? Are you alright?" Tapping on his shoulder broke the ODST out of his reverie.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a sense of deja vu." Philips replied, not ready to tell Mtan the whole truth.</p>
<p>"Deja what?"</p>
<p>"It means a sense of familiarity, like I've been here before." Philips said. The two of them were silent for a moment before they agreed that they should keep exploring.</p>
<p>The <em>thrum </em>of the Hog's engine echoed off the empty streets and buildings, which was unnerving enough, but what disturbed the ODST the most was the fact that the street names and locations were exactly the same as New Sanctuary.</p>
<p>Discreetly choosing a route that took them past his old apartment complex, Philips stopped the Hog and got out, as the Elite followed suit.</p>
<p>"Why have we stopped?" Mtan asked in a puzzled tone. "I-I just want to check something." Philips lied. "Wait here. I'll be back in a few minutes." He left without waiting for Mtan's reply, truthfully not caring if the Elite decided to press on without him.</p>
<p>One of the people in those flashes had mentioned his mother. Philips didn't know what he expected to find here, but he needed to look at his old home. For evidence, a clue, a sign, anything! Finally finding the old apartment, Philips inputted the password that was active when he was a kid and was surprised to find that it worked.</p>
<p>The door slid open... to a bare room, devoid of any furniture, pictures... really any sign that someone used to live here. Searching through the other rooms, Philips found that the entire apartment was barren. Sighing in frustration and sadness, Philips slumped against the wall and pulled his helmet off.</p>
<p>"This was your home, wasn't it?" Philips jumped when he heard the voice as he pulled out his battle rifle and aimed it at the source of the noise, only to find that it was Mtan standing in the doorway.</p>
<p>"Was it that obvious?" Philips huskily asked, lowering his weapon and picking up his helmet. The Elite nodded solemnly. "I am truly sorry." Mtan whispered. "Thanks." Philips genuinely replied, voice cracking as he did so. Gathering himself up, Philips resealed his helmet and turned to his comrade.</p>
<p>"You go ahead, I'll be right behind you." Mtan gave his acknowledgement and left to go to the Warthog. Philips gave one last look at what used to be old home, then he followed the Elite.</p>
<p>What he didn't know was that as he was walking out through the door, a figure in green armor appeared, standing in the middle of the room and watching the ODST leave. A second later, the figure disappeared as well.</p>
<p>Returning to their exploration, Philips took them by the town hall, where they found the first signs of some kind of struggle. Debris was scattered across the road, clearly from the buildings around the square and courtyard.</p>
<p>The two of them dismounted the Warthog and searched through the wreckage on foot, looking for any recording equipment, electronic device or anything that could tell them what happened here.</p>
<p>"I don't like this." Mtan said, "There should be some sort of evidence as to what happened here, and yet there's nothing." Right on cue, another flash occurred just as the Elite had finished speaking.</p>
<p>"Oh, shit." Philips whispered.</p>
<p>Soldiers were all over the place, moving objects throughout the courtyard. Realizing that the soldiers could spot them at any moment, Mtan grabbed Philips, then triggered his active camo. The cloaking field enshrouded them both, allowing them to observe unseen.</p>
<p>"What are you doing?" Philips asked, but the Elite shushed him before speaking.</p>
<p>"We should remain hidden until this ends." Mtan said. Philips looked at the Elite, and nodded his head in agreement, before turning back to observe the scene in front of them. Then the realization struck him with the force of a sledgehammer and he whipped his head around to look into Mtan's faceplate.</p>
<p>"Wait, you can see this?" The ODST whispered incredulously. Before Mtan could reply, someone in the middle of the courtyard started shouting.</p>
<p>"Get this stuff inside now!" A female commander yelled, as the soldiers began moving boxes into the town hall in a flurry of movement. "Faster!" The commander yelled, "We don't have much time before-" She was cut off by another soldier.</p>
<p>"INCOMING!" Someone shouted, before an artillery shell landed near one of the buildings, sending debris flying.</p>
<p>Mtan rolled the two of them out of the way of a large chunk of masonry, and the two of them recovered in time to see several more artillery shells smash chunks off of the nearby buildings. Screams of agony echoed around them as soldiers either lay bleeding from the shrapnel or crushed from the debris.</p>
<p>"Pull back! Everyone get inside!" Someone shouted as the soldiers took cover inside the town hall. One particularily lucky shell landed on a munitions crate, causing a massive explosion that killed everyone near it. The fireball also vaporized one particularly large crate, revealing the contents within. Despite the chaos around them, the two cloaked soldiers found their eyes drawn to the artifact inside.</p>
<p>The structure had glowing symbols carved on it that looked similar to the ones on the other alien artifact Philips had seen earlier. But that was where the similarities ended. This artifact colored in a dull red hue, and stood at 9 feet tall. The base seemed to be a solid structure, while the top of the artifact split off into two prongs that arced towards each other. Unlike the other device, this artifact appeared to made of solid stone, though considering it survived a massive explosion, it was obviously something much tougher.</p>
<p>The flash ended at that moment, causing Mtan to release Philips and deactivate his active camo. The two soldiers absorbed what they had seen, clearly wondering what that artifact had been. Looking around, Philips was the first to notice that the defensive positions in the city hall were still relatively intact.</p>
<p>"We should go inside. See what we can find." The ODST said. They entered into the city hall, and were surprised to find that this place was less like a government building and more like a military fortress.</p>
<p>"Is this the same layout as your old one?" Mtan asked, looking through doors in the process.</p>
<p>"No idea," Philips said, as he tried accessing the computers and searching through desks, "I've never actually been here before."</p>
<p>After half an hour of searching Philips found a biometric scanner while running his hand across a wall. "Access granted." A voice said, causing a hidden panel to open and reveal an elevator.</p>
<p>"Mtan, get over here!" Philips shouted, causing the Elite to run over to the ODST. Looking over the elevator, Mtan turned to look at Philips.</p>
<p>"Do you think that this is a wise course of action?"</p>
<p>"Well, if you have a better idea, I'm open to it." Philips said. After a moment, Mtan shook his head and the two went in. A short and cramped elevator ride later, and the two of them arrived in an observation booth overlooking a massive chamber.</p>
<p>A chamber filled with several alien artifacts, including the stone monolith.</p>
<p>The two of them found themselves gazing in awe at the alien devices, when suddenly the monolith and the several of the blue devices started glowing. A deep bass tone, and something that sounded like a massive foghorn filled the rooms, causing Mtan to howl in pain and Philips to clutch his head and fall to his knees.</p>
<p>As the two of them watched, an orange beam of energy erupted from between the two prongs on the monolith, and shot up into the air. Unnatural screaming caused the ODST and the Spec Ops Elite to search for the source of the noise.</p>
<p>And what they saw would haunt their nightmares.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 8</p><p>In orbit over Unknown World. Several hours earlier.</p><p>In orbit above this unnamed world, a rift in space and time opened up and a large grey ship emerged from it. The <em>Eye of Intent</em> settled into a parking orbit over the planet. An Exactor-class corvette, the <em>Eye </em>was a force to be reckoned with.</p><p>Although it had the chassis of UNSC Charon-class frigate, the Exactors had been extensively modified and upgraded by the Republic to serve as patrol and exploratory vessels. Ships of this class were often deployed on their own, and were therefore equipped with state of the art weaponry and shielding to ward off attackers of all kinds.</p><p>The <em>Eye </em>was carrying a standard battlion of 3000 Republic Marines, their accompanying armor and air support and several squads of special forces soldiers. One of which was being deployed at this moment.</p><p>Taking no chances, the <em>Eye </em>had informed the rest of the scout flotilla that they were attached to about where they were going and the dimensional coordinates of the planet. As the single dropship descended, the <em>Eye </em>disappeared into the dimensional vortex once again.</p><hr/><p>Dropship interior.</p><p>"We'll continue our patrol and return within 24 hours." The Captain said via hologram, "Contact us immediately if hostilities develop."</p><p>"Acknowledged." Shade acknowledged, "we'll notify you if anything changes."</p><p>"Be careful down there." The Bothan Captain sighed, then he ended the transmission. Shade turned to look at Shadow Team, all of whom were preparing their gear for a search and rescue, though they were more than prepared for any other situation.</p><p>"You all know what the mission is." Shade addressed the team. "Orbital scans have detected 2 Covenant War era dropships; a D77H-TCI Pelican and a Type-52 Phantom. We're going to split into 2 separate groups to investigate them." Shade gestured to Fade and Thul.</p><p>"Shadow 2 and 5 will be investigating the Phantom, which appears to have crashed near some Forerunner ruins. You two will be airdropped as we're flying over the crash site, so grab anything else you may need."</p><p>"Got it."</p><p>"Understood."</p><p>"2 minutes." The pilot reported. The two soldiers grabbed all the gear they needed and soon they were closing on the drop zone. The bay door opened and as the two of them positioned themselves at the entrance, Shade came over to talk to them.</p><p>"Remember, stay in constant communication." Shade said, "And be careful." He softly added, looking at Fade and then turning to Thul, "Both of you."</p><p>"We will." Fade said, and Thul nodded. And with that, the two of them leapt from the craft. As the door sealed, Shade turned to Nye and Dread.</p><p>"Shadow 3 and 4, you two are with me. We're going to investigate the Pelican crash site, see if we can find our ODST."</p><p>The two of them gave their acknowledgements, and they spent the rest of the trip in silence.</p><hr/><p>After being airdropped from their dropship, Fade and Thul made their way past the Forerunner ruins, into the crash site of the Phantom dropship. On the way, they noticed a startling amount of spent shell casings.</p><p>"Judging by the tire tracks, it seems like a Warthog was fleeing something." Thul commented at the barely visible imprints outside the Phantom.</p><p>"We'll figure it out later." Fade said before pointing to the Phantom, "First things first."</p><p>Turning their attention to the objective at hand, the two soldiers began scouring the wreck, searching for anything that they could find. Thul quickly found that some of the onboard systems were still functional.</p><p>"Check the computer logs, see if there's any useful information." Fade ordered.</p><p>"Yes, ma'am." Thul started searching through the database while Fade set up watch on top of the Phantom. Even though there was no obvious threat, Fade kept sweeping over the same locations with her rifle scope. She could swear there was something that kept appearing on the top of the stone temple, but everytime she checked there was nothing there.</p><p>Inside the Phantom, Thul continued to pour through the databanks when he felt an unfamiliar presence behind him. Half-turning with his sidearm in hand, Thul took aim behind him but found only empty air. Turning back to his work, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them.</p><p>Fade was still searching when Thul called her down into the Phantom. Leaping into the wreck, the asari landed behind the Sangheili.</p><p>"You have something?" She asked.</p><p>"There isn't much to go on, but I was able to identify the parent ship registry of this craft and the date of its deployment." Fade gestured for him to continue. "The ship was the CAS-class assault carrier <em>Solemn Penance </em>and the date of deployment is the human date of October 20, 2552."</p><p>"The day of the Covenant's first assault on Earth." Fade said. Realizing the implications, she activated her comms.</p><p>"Shadow 2 to Shadow Lead. Shade, do you read?"</p><hr/><p>At the Pelican crash site, Shade, Nye and Dread disembarked from their dropship and took up positions around the wreckage.</p><p>"Dread, you're on overwatch." Shade said, pointing to one of the trees. The Yautja wordlessly nodded and started climbing. "Nye, you're with me. I'll check the Pelican's systems, and you'll search the area around it."</p><p>"Got it." Nye said, as the squad leader made his way towards the Pelican.</p><p>Nye turned and followed Shade, but halted when he felt a presence behind him. Pulling out his SMG, Nye looked around, but found nothing behind him.</p><p>"You OK?" Shade asked, coming up behind the Chiss.</p><p>"I don't know... I feel like we're being watched." He said solemnly. Shade nodded, he'd been getting the same feeling himself. The sheer emptiness and silence of the planet itself was putting him on edge.</p><p>"C'mon, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can leave." Nye nodded and followed Shade, both checking their sensors and motion trackers as they turned towards the Pelican.</p><p>Dread was experiencing the same thing: Several times, he could swear that something had been in his field of vision, but when he looked again, nothing was there. The lack of fauna wasn't making him feel any better, if anything he was more disturbed about that than the others.</p><p>The Yautja prefered hunting on inhabited planets; it made the game more interesting. This world was clearly capable of supporting life: the habitable atmosphere and thriving plant life was testament to that, but there was no sign of any fauna or even ambient insects.</p><p>It was rather eerie.</p><p>In the orbiting Republic dropship, the two pilots kept scanning the canyon. Their powerful sensors were picking up unusual readings. Heat signatures that quickly faded from view, blips on the motion sensors that disappeared in less than a second.</p><p>"Shadow Lead, we're picking up anomalous readings all over the canyon. Is there anything unusual going on down there?"</p><p>"Nothing that we can see." Shade replied as he worked, quickly hacking into what remained of the Pelican's computer systems. As he worked, Shade felt a presence behind him, but when he looked behind him, there was nothing there.</p><p>"Shadow Lead, I've found something unusual." Nye's voice crackled over the comm.</p><p>"What is it?" Shade said distractedly, still searching through what little data remained on the dropship.</p><p>"Someone set up a bunch of floodlights in one of the nearby caves."</p><p>"And why exactly is that unusual?" Dread said, deadpan.</p><p>"Because, they're not UNSC issued equipment." Nye replied, "In fact, I can't find any identifying markings on these things at all."</p><p>"Well, I think things just got a lot more interesting." Shade said, looking at the data. "According to the logs, this Pelican was launched to serve in the Battle of New Mombasa in 2552."</p><p>"So, I'm guessing it went MIA." Dread interjected, realizing that his hunch had been correct.</p><p>"Yes, but that's not the weird part." Shade continued, "According to the onboard calender, it's only been 3 days since October 20th."</p><p>"Well, that <em>is</em> interesting." Nye commented with a hint of surprise in his voice. Shadow Team recalled that the scan of the planet indicated the world was in a state of dimensional flux, but apparently, the planet had suffered some temporal distortion as well.</p><p>At that moment, they were interrupted by a call from Fade.</p><p>"Shadow 2 to Shadow Lead. Shade, do you read?"</p><p>"I read you Shadow 2, what did you find?" Shade said.</p><p>"Quite a lot." Fade responded, "We can confirm that the ruins on the planet are Forerunner, but more importantly, we've learned that the Phantom was drawn into the slipspace rupture caused by Regret's Carrier over New Mombasa in 2552."</p><p>"Your information coincides with ours." Shade said, "And it seems like this world suffered some very recent temporal displacement, considering that the Pelican's logs report that it's currently October 23, 2552."</p><p>"That's surprising." Thul's voice came over the comm, "What about our ersatz ODST, did you find anything on him?"</p><p>"No, the computer is too damaged to pull personnel files from it." The squad leader replied.</p><p>"Now that's rather curious." Thul said, "It's the same scenario in the Phantom's computer."</p><p>"I don't think this is a coincidence." Fade interjected. "When is it ever?" Nye snarked. Shade cut them both off.</p><p>"Focus on the task at hand. Fade, have you found any sign of recent activity?"</p><p>"Yes, it appears that a Warthog was here, and the main gun was used."</p><p>"Alright, search through the ruins, see what you can find." Shade ordered.</p><p>"Yes sir, we'll get right on it." Fade's reply came across rather hesitant, with her voice shaking slightly. Frowning, Shade switched the comms to private. "Are you alright?" He asked softly.</p><p>"I'm fine, Tom."</p><p>"Don't give me that, Aeian. You sound like you've seen a ghost." Shade said.</p><p>'Maybe I have,' Fade thought before answering. "I don't know, but I feel like I'm being watched. And I think Thul is getting that sense as well."</p><p>"Yeah, me too. Same with Nye and Dread." Shade said. There was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. "Just be careful out there."</p><p>"I always am." Fade replied with a hint of playfulness in her voice. Shade briefly chuckled at that remark before focusing on the task at hand.</p><p>"We'll meet up with the two of you soon." Shade said, his voice professional once again.</p><p>"Understood. Shadow 2 out." Fade disconnected.</p><p>Exiting the Pelican, Shade turned to his squadmates as they both appeared in front of him. "We're going to scout out the rest of the area and see if we can't find our ODST. Dread, were you able to establish a trail?"</p><p>"Yes sir," the Yautja growled, "He left the canyon through a fissure in one of the rock walls. We can pick it up as we go along."</p><p>"Excellent." Shade called their dropship, which picked them up. Leaving the bay doors open, the team instructed the craft to fly at a low altitude and speed, allowing them to follow the trail. Tracking the ODST's footprints for a while, they came across a spot where the bootprints disappeared and became tire tracks.</p><p>"He must have found transportation." Nye said, the three of them having briefly disembarked to scout the area, "Judging by the size and the patterns, I would assume he drove away on a Mongoose."</p><p>Shade nodded, "Let's keep moving."</p><p>Following the ODST's path, the team soon came across a small collection of unmarked bunkers, and all indications pointed to their quarry stopping here. Entering the bunker, Shade, Dread and Nye began searching through the computer systems.</p><p>"Well, this place is still running on optimal power," Dread reported, scanning the systems on his wrist gauntlet, "But it doesn't seem like anyone's been here for years."</p><p>Shade and Nye were trying to access whatever data was on the hard drives, but found that they had been wiped clean. Packing up, Shade, Nye and Dread continued onwards, and eventually found the Mongoose they had been following.</p><p>Leaping from the dropship, the group found that it had been abandoned. "This vehicle has been abandoned for at least a day." Dread reported, using the infrared vision built into his bio-mask, "The trail ends at the water, he walked in and then just vanished."</p><p>"What do you mean 'vanished'?" Nye said incredulously, "He couldn't have just disappeared into nothing."</p><p>"I didn't say he 'disappeared into nothing'," the Yautja retorted, "In all likelihood, he was teleported."</p><p>"Teleported how? And where?" Shade interjected.</p><p>"I'm not sure." Dread admitted, "but I don't think this was the incident that brought him to us."</p><p>The three of them moved on, coming to the bunker, where their gunship was already providing overwatch. "Shadow Lead, we're not detecting any movement or heat signatures, but I recommend that you use caution."</p><p>"Copy that." Shade said, then turned to Nye and Dread. "You know the drill." The Chiss and the Yautja nodded wordlessly, and they split up to search the bunker.</p><p>The sense of unease they had all felt when they landed was still prevalent, and every now and then, one of the 3 would turn around with weapons drawn, or double check an area they had already searched. Each time, they found themselves alone, but that didn't change the fact that they all felt eyes on them.</p><p>It was Shade who found the body in the basement, lying in a pool of blood. Dread followed shortly after and looked over the corpse.</p><p>"This man was killed by a strong blow to the head." Dread said, pointing to the trail of dried blood running down the side of his head. "What about his throat?" Shade asked, looking at the deep cut inflicted across the man's neck.</p><p>"That happened after he died, possibly a day afterwards." The Yautja replied, just as confused as Shade was. Why would someone need to inflict that type of wound on a corpse? To confuse matters even more, the helmet camera was destroyed, the visor data was corrupted and the dog tags were missing.</p><p>"Maybe he was possessed?" Nye said over the comm, a theory which neither Shade nor Dread could really refute as implausible, considering some of the things that they had encountered.</p><p>"Maybe, but we can't be certain yet." Shade uttered, then he activated his long range communication.</p><p>"Shadow Lead to Shadow 2. We've found one of the ODSTs. Deceased. Identity unknown."</p><hr/><p>After leaving the Phantom, Thul and Fade attempted to track where the Warthog had fled. Following a path through the ruins, they were easily able to track the Warthog's route by following the trail of shell casings. Along the way, they took note of the fact that the ruins were indeed Forerunner in design.</p><p>They tracked the casings to the edge of the ruins, where the trail went cold and any tire tracks had been swept away by the wind and sand.</p><p>"We'll regroup at the temple." Fade suggested, "See if our mystery ODST visited that place." Thul agreed and they retraced their steps to the Phantom, then entered the half-uncovered temple.</p><p>"Well this is odd." Thul muttered. Leviathan artifacts were scattered all over the floor in a haphazard fashion. Fade stopped to examine several orbs while Thul kept searching the temple. Fade scanned the artifacts and found that they were inert. 'It looks like we've uncovered an Ancient complex.' Fade thought when Thul's voice pulled her out of her reverie.</p><p>"Fade, in here!" Thul shouted, "You're going to want to see this."</p><p>The asari went to Thul's position and found a body. Specifically, the body of an ODST. The torso had been split apart between the shoulder and the head, but there was very little blood leaking through.</p><p>"Looks like he was killed by an energy sword." Thul said, inspecting the corpse. "I don't think so," Fade said, "It seems like this guy died from blunt force trauma to the head."</p><p>At that moment, their comlink activated.</p><p>"Shadow Lead to Shadow 2. We've found one of the ODSTs. Deceased. Identity unknown." Shade's voice filtered through the speaker.</p><p>"Copy that." Fade said, "We've found another dead ODST. Cause of death on yours?"</p><p>"Blunt force trauma to the head." Shade replied, "Though it seems that someone stabbed this guy through the neck after he died."</p><p>"It appears both victims died under similar circumstances, yet they bear fresh marks of battle."</p><p>"Your ODST had his throat slashed out?" Nye asked.</p><p>"No, this guy was cut almost completely in half with an energy sword." Fade said.</p><p>"<em>C'jit</em>, Thul, was that really necessary?" Dread joked.</p><p>"Cut the chatter, Dread." Shade interrupted, "Fade, do you have any leads on his identity or what happened to him?"</p><p>"No, his dog tags are missing, his visor logs are corrupted and his helmet camera was smashed to bits."</p><p>"Hm. I'm sensing a pattern here." Shade murmered to himself, before addressing the asari, "We'll rendezvous at your coordinates. ETA 15 minutes. Shadow Lead, out."</p><p>The asari and Sangheili then exited the temple and headed for the rendezvous point, still struggling with the feeling that they were being watched, despite the lack of any obvious threat. Fifteen minutes later, the dropship arrived, and Shadow Team was reunited.</p><p>"So what do we do now?" Nye asked the assembled squad. At that moment, the instruments in the dropship started blaring.</p><p>"Sir, massive energy spike detected!" The pilot shouted over the alarms.</p><p>"Location?" Shade asked.</p><p>"50 miles northwest from here. It appears to emanating from a city and..." The pilot paused for a moment before resuming, "Sir, if I'm reading this correctly, the energy is similar in composition to that of a Marker."</p><p>Everyone froze when they heard that. After a moment, Fade broke the silence.</p><p>"Goddess," her voice came out in a whisper.</p><p>"Contact the <em>Eye of Intent</em>. Let them know what's happened." Shade snapped, "And take us to the source." The human turned to look at each member of his team. There was no hesitation.</p><p>Shadow Team was ready.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 9</p><p>Mtan sprinted out of the city hall at his top speed, with Philips lagging considerably behind. Both of their legs ached from the exertion, but the ODST and Spec Ops Elite kept running anyway. Every now and then, Mtan would pause for a second, and fire a burst from his plasma rifle at the horde of monsters pursuing them.</p><p>'Which is more damaging to these things than my weapon is.' Philips grimly thought. After encountering these creatures, the two of them had held their ground for a moment in that observation room, but quickly found that their weapon fire wasn't really slowing them. They had retreated into the elevator, but by the time they returned to the surface, the monstrosities had managed to follow.</p><p>The two allies ran around a corner, then Mtan grabbed Philips and reactivated his cloaking device. Pressing themselves against a wall, they waited for the creatures following them to show up, allowing the ODST and the Elite to get a good look at what they were up against:</p><p>They had flickering traces of darkness coming off them, similarily to the shadow creatures they had encountered earlier, but these could be visualized much more clearly. Some of them looked like that blue cyborg Philips had seen earlier, while the others were like nothing either had seen before.</p><p>Twisted and sickly humanoid creatures shambled past, all in various forms of mutation. Some had their arms replaced with blades made of bone, while others had their legs replaced with a sharp tail and were crawling along their hands. Philips and Mtan lost track of just how many types there were, but they were all obviously dangerous.</p><p>All of these creatures had clearly been human at some point, but they were all corrupted beyond individual recognition. Having lost track of their prey, the horde dispersed throughout the city, as growling roars echoed through the streets.</p><p>Mtan and Philips rematerialized and looked around. Relieved to find that none of those things had noticed them, the ODST let out a sigh of relief, while Mtan peered around the corner and spotted their Warthog in the courtyard.</p><p>Which was crawling with those monstrosities.</p><p>"It appears driving away is no longer an option." The Elite muttered.</p><p>"So, we're going on foot, against those things." Philips said in exasperation, "Lovely."</p><p>Screeching interrupted their conversation, causing the two soldiers to look towards the source of the noise.</p><p>"Oh, shit." was all that Philips could say.</p><p>Several dragon-like creatures were flying through the air, with the same skin tone of those creatures who had just passed by and several of whom were currently clinging to the sides of these dragons. They were currently hovering over the city, seemingly searching for any signs of life to attack.</p><p>Just as one of the creatures took notice of the potential prey lurking underneath it, an energy bolt lanced through the sky and impacted the dragon, gutting it and burning several creatures clinging to the side. Those humanoids that survived fell to the ground, the force of the impact shattering them.</p><p>"What the hell was that?" Mtan asked.</p><hr/><p>"What the hell was that?" Dread yelled, watching as one of their aerial oppenents swooped towards them.</p><p>"Incoming contacts!" The pilot shouted as the ship swerved to avoid the barrage of mass accelerator rounds. An energy bolt pierced a massive hole through the dragon, causing the creature to fall from the sky.</p><p>"Scans show that these things appear to be a cross between Reaper Harvesters and Necromorph flyers." The copilot reported, sending a barrage of missiles into the mass of enemy fliers.</p><p>"Drop us off on those buildings." Shade ordered, pointing to a cluster of skyscrapers, "Then try to draw those things away." Nodding, the pilots used the dropship's weapons to punch a hole through the mass of Harvesters, before moving to hover over the drop point.</p><p>Shadow Team leapt from the sides of the bay, cloaking devices activating as each member landed on a different building. As soon as the team was clear, the dropship sent a barrage of blue energy bolts towards the aerial combatants.</p><p>Considerably angry, the surviving Harvesters followed the ship as it fled towards the open sky. Shade watched, unconcerned. As soon as the Harvesters were at a decent distance, the dropship would activate its cloaking device and leave the Necromorphs behind.</p><p>Hopefully, the <em>Eye of Intent </em>would be on station within the day, since the Marker's electromagnetic energy, combined with the interference from the atmosphere, meant that communications with the <em>Eye </em>had been sporadic at best. They had managed to contact the captain and inform him on what had happened but only time would tell when reinforcements would show up.</p><p>Snarling roars drew the team's attention to the streets, where creatures resembling Necromorphs and Husks were milling around. Dread took overwatch on the skyscrapers, unleashing plasma bolts into the swarm whenever they were needed, occasionally pausing to fight off any abomination that found him.</p><p>The rest of the team split up to do what they did best: Nye helped clear the streets using his grenade and rocket launchers, Shade's energy shotgun made short work of monsters inside the buildings, Fade unleashed her biotics on any Necromorph husk she encountered, causing explosions of dark energy rippled through the horde, and finally, Thul activated his dual energy swords and charged their enemies at close range.</p><p>As the team slaughtered their way through the advancing abominations, a few oddities became noticable; For starters, the rare time any semblance of speech came through what remained of their mouths, it was in a female voice, not the rasping, baritone inflections of the Gravemind.</p><p>Secondly, despite looking like Necromorphs and husks at first glance, the team could make out subtle differences that separated them, not to mention that they were physically weaker than their more common brethren. And finally, all of them seemed to be in a state of dimensional flux, if the shadowy outlines were any indication.</p><p>"You shouldn't be here." A female voice emerged from one of the creatures, just before Dread cut it in half with his wrist blades. Spinning around, the Predator hurled a smart-disc had a group of Necromorphs that had just crawled up to his perch, slicing them apart.</p><p>Finishing up with the remains, a loud noise attracted the Predator's attention. Looking over the side of the building, Dread spotted a Warthog driving away as fast as possible.</p><p>"Shadow Team, I've got eyes on a Warthog moving through the streets." Dread reported.</p><p>"Copy that. Shadow 2 on intercept."</p><hr/><p>Regardless of what had destroyed that dragon-like creature, the explosion was enough to draw the the rest of the abominations away, allowing Philips and Mtan a clear path to their Warthog.</p><p>As the two soldiers entered their vehicle, they registered the faint sound of weapon fire echoing off the streets. That must be why these monsters had left, to find other prey. Tires screeching, the Warthog took off at breakneck speed. Midway through one of the streets, a violet blur landed right in the path of the speeding Hog.</p><p>As the impact settled, Philips got a good look at the being in front of him; it was the same blue female he had encountered in an earlier flash. That triggered his fight or flight instinct, considering that everything he had seen in those flashes had been trying to kill him.</p><p>All of this ran through his mind in the span of a few seconds. Philips drove the Warthog directly towards the blue female, who looked surprised at this action. Turning violet once again, the woman disappeared in a blur and reappeared on the hood of the Warthog.</p><p>"Shoot it!" Philips shouted at Mtan, who immediately pumped LAAG rounds into the warrior. A purple barrier blocked most of the shots, but the kinetic strain sent her tumbling off of the hood. The Warthog left her coughing in the dust.</p><p>"What was that?" Mtan asked, alarmed at what had just happened.</p><p>"I don't know," Philips said, "but I saw her in one of my visions."</p><p>Mtan didn't reply, as he was too busy mulling through his own thoughts. The ODST's instinct was likely the correct one, all things considered. If Philips had indeed seen her in a flash before, then there was no telling what she would have done to them.</p><p>The Warthog took off through the empty streets, soon reaching a highway out into the wilderness. The two allies drove off into the wild, heading for parts unknown.</p><hr/><p>"Damn it!" Fade muttered, as she pushed herself up off the ground.</p><p>She had found the ODST they had been searching for (who had apparently allied himself with a Spec Ops Elite), and the soldier's first instinct was to try and kill her. In retrospect, that was an understandable reaction with everything going on, but the two of them were still a little too trigger happy.</p><p>"Shadow 2, sitrep!" Shade called through the comm.</p><p>"I'm fine, Shade." She replied, dusting herself off, "I found our ODST in the Warthog, with a Covenant Elite, and they just tried to kill me."</p><p>"An Elite..." Thul's voice drifted through the link, as a group of Necromorphs rounded a corner and charged Fade's position. "So, they're allies?"</p><p>"I would assume so," Fade responded as she hurled a missile of dark energy at the cluster of creatures in front of her, "And I think they might've been in the thrall of Marker dementia or Reaper Indoctrination."</p><p>"That could explain why they thought you were hostile," Dread growled as he tore a husk apart, "We need to find the source of this."</p><p>"Shadow Team, I believe we can help you with that." Their pilot interrupted, "We tracked the source to a building in the city center. It appears to be a town hall."</p><p>"Then that's where were going," Shade said, "Shadow Team, converge on that building now."</p><p>It took them a while, but after fighting and sneaking their way through the buildings, the team arrived in the city hall. Covering fire from their dropship kept the creatures off their backs while the team searched for whatever had created the signal. It was Shade who found an elevator that led to a secret section in the building. Breaking through the biometric scanner with ease, Shade and Nye took the lift down, while the rest of Shadow Team stayed above ground to cover them.</p><p>"You still have those antimatter charges?"</p><p>"As always." Nye replied, eager to blow something up. Shade just chuckled.</p><p>Reaching an observation booth, Shadow Lead and 3 got a good look at the artifacts that were laying in the middle of the room. Several Reaper artifacts of varying size were scattered across the floor, but the one that drew their gaze was the Marker.</p><p>Or rather, the cheap imitation of one. Though the device could be mistaken for a Marker at first glance, Shade and Nye were able to spot the subtle differences between this device and an actual Red Marker. The subtle blue light glowing under the surface of the artifact was a dead giveaway that something was off.</p><p>Putting the curiousity out of his head, Shade fired a blast into the window, shattering it. The two of them leapt through the opening and onto the ground floor.</p><p>"Set the charges." Shade ordered.</p><p>Nye got to work, planting an antimatter charge on each Reaper artifact and several on the Marker knock-off. During this time, Shade kept watch with his shotgun, waiting for Nye's confirmation. He kept glancing at the Marker copy, and noticed what appeared to be some sort of supernatural aura emerging from the artifact.</p><p>"Charges are set." Nye's voice interrupted his musing. Shade nodded.</p><p>"Let's get the hell out of here."</p><p>As the two of them reached the elevator, they were ambushed by a lone slasher look-alike, who charged past Shade and latched itself onto Nye, it's talons trying to pierce his suit. The armor and shielding held, and Nye struggled to push the creature off of him, when it spoke.</p><p>"Stop this now!" The creature screeched in a female voice, just before an energy blast from Shade's shotgun blew it to pieces.</p><p>Gathering Nye up, they returned to the surface and reunited with the rest of Shadow Team. The squad retreated to a safe distance before Nye triggered the charges, causing the city hall to collapse in on itself. At the same time, every one of the creatures dissolved and disappeared into nothing.</p><p>"What do we do now?" Dread asked.</p><p>"We'll keep following the Warthog, and hopefully, we'll be able to break the influence on both of them." Shade said.</p><p>"So you think they're indoctrinated?" Thul asked.</p><p>"I'm not sure." Shade admitted, "But I think there's something more happening on this planet."</p><p>"Considering that this world appears to be an Ancient stronghold, it seems likely that we're missing a few pieces of the puzzle." Fade responded.</p><p>"When the <em>Eye </em>returns, we'll hopefully get some help solving that mystery." Nye said as the dropship landed beside them.</p><p>Shadow Team boarded their dropship, which took off as soon they were all aboard. Shade stood at the precipice of the troop bay, staring at the remains of the city hall as the ship slowly flew away. His mind was overworked as he tried to process all the information he had on hand.</p><p>Forerunner ruins and Leviathan artifacts indicated that this world belonged to the Ancients, but the design of this city indicated that humans used to live here. Combine that with Reaper devices, a knock-off Marker, and the fact that the world seemed to be in a state of dimensional and temporal flux, and Shade could only wonder what was happening here.</p><p>The dropship took off through the now clear sky, leaving the city behind.</p><hr/><p>As the vessel streaked past several skyscrapers, a female figure appeared on a rooftop, watching Shadow Team's departure.</p><p>She was fuming at the squad, for they had cost her millennia of planning. Worse still, they were apparently immune to Marker or Reaper based influence. Fortunately, this world still held more artifacts that the Ancients had left here, and Philips and Mtan were not immune to her control, so the plan had not been thwarted yet.</p><p>Nevertheless, Shadow Team could not be allowed to interfere any further. She became aware of the figure in green armor who had materialized behind her.</p><p>"Keep them away from the complex." She said to him, impatience creeping into her voice, "When the time comes, they must not be allowed to intervene."</p><p>"As you wish." The demonic voice replied.</p><p>The green armored soldier vanished. She disappeared shortly after.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 10</p><p>Philips brought the Warthog to a grinding halt. They had been driving for hours through a path in a forest, but found the trail blocked by the dense foliage. 'Guess we're walking.' Philips thought. Sighing inwardly, the ODST dismounted the vehicle, and began walking through the woods, with Mtan following right behind him.</p><p>After walking for several minutes, Philips figured that he might as well try to gain some information from his Elite ally.</p><p>"Mtan, I have to ask, what happened to the rest of your team after you crashed here?"</p><p>The Elite was silent for a moment, and Philips thought about dropping the conversation when his ally's voice rang out behind him.</p><p>"When our Phantom landed, I had been knocked unconscious by the crash. When I woke up, I found the bodies of my lance scattered around the ruins."</p><p>"So they died in the crash?"</p><p>"I do not know." Mtan said, "All I knew was that they deserved a better death than what they had recieved. I had intended to give them a warrior's burial."</p><p>The Elite's voice grew husky as he continued his story.</p><p>"But then everything went strange; the world took on an orange tint and my friends got back up." Philips winced as he realized what had happened next.</p><p>"But it wasn't them, was it?" Mtan grew silent for a moment before answering.</p><p>"No, it wasn't."</p><p>Philips decided to leave the conversation be for now, and the two of them spent several minutes walking in silence, with the rustling of the trees being the only ambient noise in the background. After a while, the ODST chose to ask another question that had been bothering him.</p><p>"So how did you know what was happening in the courtyard?"</p><p>"That was not the first vision I had seen." Mtan said, "During my time at those ruins, I had other encounters with these humans."</p><p>"How did you know that it wasn't the UNSC?"</p><p>"During my first encounter, they bore witness to me, but they had no knowledge of me or the Covenant. They tried to capture me." The Elite snorted at that sentence, "But after I proved too... difficult to ensnare, they attempted to kill me."</p><p>"What about Michael?" Philips asked, "What happened to him?"</p><p>"I do not know what happened to your friend." Mtan admitted, "After finishing my initial exploration of that temple, I chose to stay away from that place, until I saw you arrive. But his body was not in the temple during my visit."</p><p>The conversation stalled at that moment when they came across a metal bunker in the middle of the forest. This alone was an oddity, but odder still was the fact that there were absolutely no distinguishing markings, no defenses surrounding the complex, and the door was wide open.</p><p>The two allies felt themselves inexplicably drawn towards the fortification and they entered the structure. The interior of the base was just as bare as the exterior, with dull metal walls lacking any sense of decoration.</p><p>As the two of them explored, they came across a junction, and Philips took a couple of steps down one of the hallways. As soon as he did, a thick door sealed up the passage behind him with a loud <em>thud</em>. Spinning around, Philips ran back to the slab of metal and started looking for a way to open it. Finding none, Philips began desperately knocking on the door.</p><p>"What the hell?! Mtan, are you there? Mtan?!" There was no response from the Elite, so the ODST chose to keep searching through the building in the hopes of finding him again.</p><p>What Philips didn't know, was that right after the door had closed behind him, Mtan had drawn his energy sword and was prepared to slice through the the thick metal door. However, as soon as he did, the floor underneath him disappeared, and the Spec Ops Elite found himself falling down a deep pit. The landing was painful, which caused Mtan to let out a loud roar in pain.</p><p>Fortunately, while the fall might have killed a human, the Sangheili warrior came out of it with only minor bruising. Mtan shook off the cobwebs from the impact and used his energy sword to carve a path out of the pit.</p><p>Fortunately, the walls were fragile and soon he found himself in another hallway. Choosing a path, Mtan began seeking out his human ally.</p><p>Meanwhile, Philips found the first signs of habitation in this facility when he arrived in a large office. Walking behind the massive wooden desk, the ODST caught his first break; the computer was active and logged in.</p><p>Searching through the files, Philips only found one of note, titled "Planetary Anomalies." Accessing the file, he found himself watching a video file. A woman in a lab coat went about adjusting the camera, and clearing the desk, before she sat down and started speaking.</p><p>"Journal Entry 324:</p><p>
  <em>Exploration of our world has uncovered ruins in many unusual locations. Given the odd and somewhat unnatural architecture, it's been theorized by many scientists, myself included, that these ruins are alien in origin. The facility we've created to access the ruins at the ocean floor have reported that they are unable to breach the alien structures within. Fortunately, the excavations in the desert have had better success in recovering the alien artifacts."</em>
</p><p>The researcher sighed and smiled, <em>"I'll be honest, without Colonel Philips, we wouldn't have been nearly as successful at recovering this technology from those fanatics. The ones that keep claiming that 'the Ancients wanted the seal intact, and that we must not be made whole,' whatever that means."</em></p><p>She chuckled before continuing, <em>"Anyways, I've heard that Kevin and Ashley are still going strong, and half the staff has been asking when they can expect the wedding."</em></p><p>A knock on the door interrupted her speech. <em>"I gotta go, Helen Nate, signing out."</em> She reached for the camera and the screen went black, causing the video to end. Philips was staring at the screen, barely registering everything the scientist had said after mentioning his mother. Something was definitely up.</p><p>"Rather curious, isn't it?" A voice emerged from the doorway, causing Philips to pull out his battle rifle and aim it at the source in surprise. But what was even more shocking was the man who was standing there.</p><p>"Captain?"</p><p>"It's me, Philips." Captain Toni said, before pointing at the gun, "Do you mind putting that down?"</p><p>The ODST private kept his weapon leveled at the Captain's chest, unsure if he was actually there and not a hallucination or another possessed corpse.</p><p>"What's your name?"</p><p>"Captain Marcus Toni, 105th ODST Division." Toni tilted his head to the left slightly, "Is that good enough, Jacob?"</p><p>Sighing in relief, Philips holstered his battle rifle onto his back, before nodding to his superior.</p><p>"Sorry about that sir. It's been weird these past few days."</p><p>Toni walked up to Philips and put his hand on his shoulder. "I'll bet. I've seen some really weird shit since I woke up in this forest. Well, now that we're together, maybe we can find Michael and Doc." He paused when the private depolarized his visor and looked down at the floor. "What is it?"</p><p>Wordlessly, Philips reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out 2 sets of dog tags, before handing them to Toni. The polarized visor of the Captain stared at the names on the tags for a moment before a sound escaped him.</p><p>"Damn it." He whispered huskily. After a moment, he handed the tags back to Philips. "What happened to them?"</p><p>"I'm not entirely sure." Philips said, "But that's not the weird part." He paused for a breath, unsure if the Captain would believe him, before continuing, "After I found their bodies, they came back to life and attacked me." Surprisingly, Toni gestured for him to continue.</p><p>"So, I had to kill them... again." His voice turned husky again. There was a long moment of silence before Toni spoke.</p><p>"You're saying they were possessed?" He asked.</p><p>"Something like that." Philips admitted, "And whatever was possessing them seemed to be smart; Doc was fairly easy to beat, but Michael kicked my ass," Philips chuckled in spite of himself as he recalled how often that had happened, "And the only reason I survived was because of Mtan-"</p><p>"Wait, who's Mtan?" Toni interrupted.</p><p>"The Spec Ops Elite who saved me from Michael, and who's been helping me deal with all the other weird shit on this planet."</p><p>"Private, you've been consorting with enemy, which would normally be grounds for treason." Toni snarled.</p><p>"Sir, you don't understand. He's a deserter and he's been helping me survive these past couple of days."</p><p>"Philips, have you considered that he's trying to lead you into a trap? That he's trying to glean intelligence from you?!" Toni was shouting now, "We need to find this Split-faced liar, and ensure the security of humanity! Tell me I can trust you, Private." The captain finished, pleading.</p><p>Philips realized it all made sense; Mtan had been lying to him this whole time, trying to get information from him. Hell, he was probably behind whatever the hell caused Michael and Doc to attack him. Anger surged through his veins as he realized that the Elite he had considered an ally, even a friend, was using him this whole time.</p><p>"I understand, sir." His voice was barely holding back the quivering rage that was coursing through him. "That split-jawed freak is in this building right now. Together, we can take him down."</p><p>Toni nodded his approval. "Let's do this." The two ODSTs left the office with a singular purpose: To seek and destroy one Special Operations Elite.</p><hr/><p>Meanwhile, Mtan was searching through the empty hallways of this facility for his human comrade. As he searched, Mtan couldn't help but appreciate the irony of his predicament; for his entire career, he had fought and killed humans on the orders of the Prophets, and now he was working with one.</p><p>The Hierarchs had claimed that humanity was an affront to the gods, but secretly, Mtan had always respected humans. He found their tenacity to be exceptional, and he personally hated having to slaughter unarmed civilians.</p><p>His former commanding officer, Thel 'Vadamee, had secretly been the same way, and had shown honor to the human soldiers, whereas most commanders would've just cut them down.</p><p>When Vadamee had been stripped of his rank, Mtan had been reassigned to the flagship of the Prophet of Regret. After the jump over Earth, his lance had intercepted a transmission from the new Arbiter, proclaiming the Great Journey to be false and encouraging that the Sangheili ally with humanity.</p><p>Mtan was so caught up in his musings that he almost missed the fragmentation grenade that rolled to a stop at his feet. Acting on reflex, the Elite leapt back just as the grenade exploded. His shields took most of the damage, but a pair of battle rifle bursts roared into the ringing cacophany.</p><p>The first burst came from a human soldier leaning around a corner in front of him, wearing ODST armor. The 3 bullets impacted against his shields, which promptly gave out from the kinetic energy.</p><p>Because of this, the next 3 rounds found their mark; one round went through Mtan's shoulder, another hit his neck and the final round grazed the side of his head, bursting through his lower right mandible and breaking it off.</p><p>The 8 foot tall Elite collapsed to the ground in a heap, blue blood seeping from his wounds. Mtan's vision swam as he saw the first human soldier that had shot at him walk up to his corpse. He called out to his partner, who walked in from behind Mtan's back and stood next to the other soldier. Mtan couldn't believe what he was seeing.</p><p>It was Philips. He had ambushed Mtan with the help of this other armored human and then he shot him in the back. Philips was conversing with this other ODST, though in his state, Mtan couldn't hear what they were saying.</p><p>As the ODSTs turned away from the bleeding body of Mtan, they didn't notice that the Elite's prone form was stirring. "Why would you do that, Philips?" Mtan whispered, barely clinging to life.</p><p>He was shocked by this betrayal of someone he was starting to consider a friend. But the ODSTs either didn't hear him or didn't care, as they walked away without looking back.</p><hr/><p>It was done. That Split-faced spy would no longer trick him.</p><p>Then why did it feel so wrong?</p><p>Philips stared at the body of Mtan, with his ears ringing. Looking over his handiwork made him feel sick. This wasn't the first time he had ever killed an Elite, but this hurt a lot more. He had trusted Mtan with his life, and it was now clear that the Elite had been planning to betray him.</p><p>He was so focused, that it took him a moment to register Toni's words.</p><p>"That was a damn good shot, Private."</p><p>"Oh, th-thank you, sir." If the Captain heard the hesitation in his tone, he didn't comment on it.</p><p>"C'mon, let's get out of here and find a way home." The two ODSTs turned and walked away from the body of Mtan, their footsteps creating footprints on the ground from their blue blood-soaked boots. Reaching the entrance of the facility, the two ODSTs made their way to the Warthog that had brought Mtan and Philips to the forest.</p><p>"Where to, Captain?"</p><p>"I know where we should go next." Toni said before gesturing to the Hog, "I'll man the LAAG, while you drive."</p><p>The two soldiers entered the Hog and as they drove away, Philips failed to notice that Captain Toni's eyes began glowing yellow from behind his visor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 11</p><p>Shadow Team's dropship tore through the air, following the trail of the Warthog that had fled from the city. Or rather, trying to.</p><p>"What do you mean, we can't pinpoint their location?" Shade asked the pilot.</p><p>"I'm not sure. There's something that keeps bouncing the signal around." The pilot said. Just then, the sensors beeped and got a lock on the Warthog's position. The pilot, copilot and Shade looked at the display for a moment.</p><p>"That can't be right." The copilot muttered as restarted the scanning process. It came up with the same location: the Warthog was apparently parked right in the middle of a nearby ocean.</p><p>"How the hell did it get over there so quickly?" The pilot asked.</p><p>"Teleportation, in all likelihood." Shade answered, "That ODST was transported several dozen miles away from the bunker we encountered, after all." The pilots thought about that, then nodded. It would explain how the Warthog got into the middle of the ocean within half an hour.</p><p>"So, I assume we're heading there?" The pilot asked. When Shade confirmed it, the dropship took off in the direction of the signal, and soon Shadow Team found itself overlooking a large facility built on the water surface.</p><p>"I don't see any Warthog." Nye snarked as they observed the landing site from the rear bay door.</p><p>"And how exactly would it have been able to get here, anyway?" Fade asked.</p><p>"I don't know." Shade said, "But something tells me this place is important to uncovering whatever is happening on this planet."</p><p>The team leapt off of the ramp and landed on a platform that overlooked the sea. The team split up, and soon all of them had either found or (in the cases of Thul and Dread) made their own entrances into the facility.</p><p>Inside the complex, the team found various barracks, offices, labs, all the sorts of rooms you would find in a military-run research facility. What they didn't find, unsurprisingly by this point, was a sign that anyone was here.</p><p>No living beings, no corpses, nothing.</p><p>"I don't know about you, but this place gives me the creeps." Said Nye over the comlink. No one felt the need to disagree with that assessment. After 5 minutes of searching, their comms activated.</p><p>"Shadow Lead, we're getting a transmission from the <em>Eye of Intent.</em>" The gunship pilot reported excitedly.</p><p>"Copy that, put them through." Shade said, glad to get some support now. The face of Captain Kre'lye appeared in the top right hand corner of Shade's HUD.</p><p>"Good to hear from you, Shadow Lead."</p><p>"Likewise, sir."</p><p>"Now, I think it's time you bring us up to speed." The Captain said, his tone turning grim.</p><p>"Of course." The human responded, "Approximately half an hour ago, we engaged a horde of creatures that resembled Necromorphs and Reaper husks. We found the artifacts that were creating them and neutralized them."</p><p>Kre'lye blinked rapidly before responding. "Shadow Lead, let me get this straight. These creatures only <em>resembled </em>Necromorphs and Husks? You're sure they weren't actually the real deal?"</p><p>"Positive. They were physically weaker than the actual creatures." At that moment, the voice of Gerald interjected into the conversation. "He's correct, Captain. The probes have detected no Necromorph, Reaper or Flood present within this sector."</p><p>"There's more, sir." Shade said, "It seems this world used to be an Ancient fortress of some kind."</p><p>"An Ancient fortress?" The Bothan repeated in surprise, "Copy that, we're sending troops and scientific personnel to the surface. Search and recovery teams will be on planet shortly."</p><p>"Understood. Shadow Team out."</p><p>"Well, it's good to finally have some backup." Fade muttered.</p><p>"Shadow Lead. I believe I've found something." The Sangheili said. The rest of the team rushed to his position and they found themselves at the entrance to an elevator leading down underwater.</p><p>"Gerald, we've found the entrance to an underwater structure." Shade said examining the control pad.</p><p>"Standby. Uploading my subroutines into your armor... now." Gerald installed a part of himself into the suit of Shade and reached out to the systems and overrode the lock on the elevator. Shadow Team entered the elevator and Nye pressed the button that said "down."</p><p>Soon they found themselves watching their descent into the blackened and empty ocean depths. Even down here, there were no fish swimming by, which worried the squad to no end. More pressing however, was the fact that Dread could see a group of smaller man made structures built on the ocean floor... and most of them were flooded.</p><p>"Heads up. We might need to go for a swim." The Yautja grumbled. He wasn't exactly equipped for deep sea exploration.</p><p>The rest of the journey was spent in silence, and soon they had reached the bottom of the facility. The elevator opened into another hallway that led to a secure doorway. Shadow Team exited the elevator and walked to the other end of the tunnel. Breaking through the encryption on the door, Shade led his team through it, which promptly sealed behind them.</p><p>Unknown to them, a figure in green armor appeared in front of the elevator, watching the entryway seal itself. The figure allowed itself to smile. It had not been easy to fake the Warthog signal that had led them to their enemy's doorstep, but now the gambit would pay off.</p><p>The enemy and Shadow Team would destroy each other.</p><p>The figure vanished.</p><p>Meanwhile, the squad had found themselves right in front of yet another door. Only this one was something they knew quite well. The door was clearly Forerunner in design, trapezoidal gray metal with a holographic console in the center of it. Allowing Gerald to access to the console, the door unlocked itself and opened into a massive Forerunner complex.</p><p>The team slowly traversed through the gleaming silver hallways, on alert for any threat that might attack them. The journey was thankfully uneventful and soon the squad had reached a massive room, with large waterfalls pouring down from the ceiling. Finding a holographic console at the precipice of the ledge, Shade activated it, and a blue hard light bridge leapt to life in front of them.</p><p>Shadow Team crossed the bridge at a brisk pace, as none of them wanted to be on the beam of light if it went out. Just as they reached the opposite end of the bridge, a group of Aggressor Sentinels appeared out of several Sentinel launchers that had been hidden behind the waterfalls.</p><p>The Forerunner automata quickly circled around them, cutting off any retreat. Dread activated his plasma caster, causing the triangle-shaped targeting lasers to appear on one of the Aggressor's casing.</p><p>"Hold your fire, Dread." Shade whispered, pulling the energy rifle from his back. "Let's not give these guys a reason to hurt us."</p><p>"We might not have a choice." Thul said, drawing one of his energy swords, "I've seen this type of behavior before. Whatever they're guarding here, they won't just let us in."</p><p>"What if we ask nicely?" The young Chiss responded, readying his grenade launcher.</p><p>"Be quiet Nye." Dread growled before Fade cut him off.</p><p>"Actually, that might work." The asari said, violet energy swirling around her as she regarded the Sentinels, "If we tell them we know of the Ancients, they may let us pass."</p><p>"It's worth a shot." Shade responded, "Gerald, how do we get their full attention?"</p><p>"One moment, Shadow Lead," The AI said, his voice emerging from Shade's helmet, "Transmitting request into the Forerunner network... now."</p><p>The effect was immediate; the Sentinels closed in on the team and blue scanning beams emerged from them, sweeping over Shadow Team multiple times. After that, the Sentinels retreated a slight distance and pointed their underside energy beams at the group on the bridge.</p><p>"Gerald, what are they doing?" Fade asked, as the entire team tensed up in preparation for a fight. Before things could escalate, a mechanical voice emerged from the Forerunner guardians.</p><p>"<em>You are not authorized to be here. By the order of the Ancients, turn away now.</em>" The Sentinels ordered. Fade and Thul looked at each other. Their hunch had been correct.</p><p>"We're not your enemies," Shade insisted, "We've been following your maker's instructions." The Forerunner guardians almost seemed puzzled, then they started speaking again.</p><p>"<em>Transmit security codes, or you will be considered hostile</em>." The voice blared through the Sentinels.</p><p>"Gerald, what's the code for Ancient security?" Nye asked.</p><p>"Broadcasting it now." The AI responded. A moment later, the mechanical guards relaxed their stance and turned away. As the Sentinels took off into the bowels of the facility, a small floating, green-glowing orb made its way toward them, pausing a meter in front of the team.</p><p>"Greetings. I am 763 Outbound Guardian. I am the Monitor of Research Facility Alpha."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Episode 12</p><p>Desert Ruins</p><p>The peaceful silence of the still desert air was broken by the loud engine roars of 3 Republic dropships. Hovering over the Forerunner structures, the ships disgorged their platoon across the desert structures. Shortly after the troops had deemed the area to be secure, the ships landed and several scientists stepped out.</p><p>The science team was clad in weaker and lighter armor than the soldiers, and they began scouring the ruins, with an escort of two soldiers each. One group began studying the crashed Phantom, as slicers began pulling all the data they could from the computer network. Two other groups were looking through the other ruins, while the final group was studying the interior of the temple itself.</p><p>And all of them were trying to ignore the sensation of being watched.</p><p>Within the temple, the scientists found Chozo hieroglyphics plastered on the walls. They showed a group of the avian-like aliens surrounding a Forerunner artifact. In the air above the artifact, a strange orb was depicted, unlike any of the Leviathan spheres scattered all over the temple grounds.</p><p>What's more, it appeared that an unknown figure was trapped inside the orb.</p><p>"What's your take on this?" The younger of the science team asked the Givin science leader, who walked towards the wall in order to get a closer look.</p><p>"From what I know of Chozo rituals, they appear to be sealing something away."</p><p>"You mean like what they did on Tallon IV?" One of their escorts asked.</p><p>"Something like that," The scientist said, "though in this case, it's likely a being that the Ancients wanted locked away."</p><p>The senior Givin turned away from the ruins and turned to look at the rest of his team.</p><p>"Record and document everything here." He ordered, "We'll send our findings back for analysis." The squad nodded and got to work.</p><hr/><p>Meanwhile, the <em>Eye of Intent</em> reported that they had uncovered a power plant that had been a few dozen miles from the crashed Phantom. The brief scan from earlier hadn't spotted it, but a more comprehensive scan had discovered the electric facility.</p><p>One squad and dropship detached from the platoon, and took off towards the power plant. Once there, they found the remains of a Reaper artifact. The squad began studying the artifact and noticed all the power cables that had been connected to it.</p><p>Thorough investigation revealed that the device had been jury-rigged to send someone's consciousness across dimensions. After determining that, it didn't take long for the team to come up with a working theory; the Ancients had already developed working models of this technology, but they wanted to know if any Reaper technology could do the same. So they experimented on it, using the Quantum entanglement abilities to strengthen the resulting connection.</p><p>Whether or not they ever used the device openly was up for debate, but they had a good guess on who recently used the device. The Nautolan squad leader activated a communication channel to their orbiting mothership.</p><p>"Theta team to the <em>Eye of Intent</em>. Do you read?"</p><p>"We read you, Theta." Gerald replied.</p><p>"We believe we've discovered how the ODST got on board the ship." The Nautolan reported. There was a pause on the other end, then the Captain came on the line.</p><p>"Alright, Theta team." Kre'lye said. "Tell me what you found."</p><hr/><p>While Theta team had uncovered the device that had brought the Republic here, and while the scientists were off exploring the ruins in the desert, Delta Squad had been deployed to an old human bunker.</p><p>This had initially been considered to be a waste of time, especially with the manhunt for the missing ODST. However, the <em>Eye's </em>sensors had picked up signs of life within this complex.</p><p>The readings were faint and rapidly fading, which was why the team was quickly moving through the bunker. After 5 minutes, the squad had found what they were looking for.</p><p>"How's he holding up?"</p><p>"Not good. This guy's lost too much blood. We need to get him to the medical bay, stat."</p><p>"Alright, activate the emergency slipspace translocation module. I'll call the <em>Eye </em>and tell them to get ready for one incoming patient."</p><hr/><p>Mtan woke in a daze, which was surprising on its own. After being betrayed by Philips, he had fully expected to be dead. But what was more surprising was his current surroundings; he had woken up in what appeared to be the medical bay of a human ship, though the equipment seemed much more advanced.</p><p>He tried to move, but found his arms and legs restrained by cuffs made of energy (which looked similar to Forerunner technology). Mtan struggled against the restraints for a moment but found it futile. His struggling drew the attention of the medical staff who quickly rushed over to him.</p><p>"Easy, there." An unknown alien doctor (who looked like a human with dark green skin and had dark blue tattoos in a line across his cheeks) said, "You took one hell of a wound."</p><p>"Who are you? And why am I on a human ship?!" Mtan shouted, trying to grab the doctor.</p><p>"Oh, right." The alien said, "I forgot, you still think the Covenant are at war with humanity."</p><p>"What are you talking about?" Mtan said, not expecting this development.</p><p>"Perhaps I should speak to him." A deep voice emerged from Mtan's right side. He turned and his mandibles opened in shock.</p><p>"You have a lot to catch up on." A female Sangheili said to him.</p><hr/><p>"How's the patient doing?" Inquired Kre'lye.</p><p>"He's very confused." Gerald said, as Kre'lye snorted inwardly 'No surprise there.' The captain thought as Gerald's voice brought him from his thoughts.</p><p>"But he will make a full recovery." The AI continued, "We even offered to restore his missing mandible, but he asked that we do not."</p><p>"Did he give a reason?" Kre'lye said, though he could already guess the answer.</p><p>"Sangheili cultural pride," Gerald answered with a smirk which quickly faded, "And to remind himself of this betrayal."</p><p>Kre'lye nodded somberly. He had expected a reaction like this. Though the crew had explained the effects of Indoctrination and Marker Dementia to the confused Spec Ops Elite, he still took the ODST's betrayal rather personally.</p><p>"Can't really say I blame him." The Bothan muttered before addressing the AI again. "Now, do we have any information on this Private Philips?"</p><p>In response, a holographic screen appeared on the table next to Gerald's avatar.</p><p>"Private Jacob Philips, 105th ODST Division." The AI started, "Born in 2523 on the colony world of Draco VIII in the capital city of New Sanctuary. Joined the UNSC Marines in 2549 and signed up for the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers one year later. He was one of the few people to escape the Battle of Tribute in 2552. He and his squad were declared MIA on October 20th, 2552, suspected to have been caught up in the Slipspace incident caused by the Prophet of Regret."</p><p>"That matches up with what Shadow Team reported." Kre'lye said, "But who's the other soldier he's currently with?"</p><p>"Based on Mtan's descriptions, and Shadow Lead's reports, I believe it is a Captain Marcus Toni, the leader of this squad." Gerald replied.</p><p>"So, I'm assuming that they're both indoctrinated and/or suffering from dementia?"</p><p>"For Private Philips, that's a safe assumption, but from Mtan's reports, it would be more prudent to assume that Captain Toni is being controlled by something else."</p><p>"You mean he might be possessed?" The Bothan asked.</p><p>"It's more than that," The AI responded, "I believe that whatever is happening on that planet, Private Philips is in the center of it all."</p><p>"I'm not following." Kre'lye shook his head, confused. Gerald almost rolled his eyes and gestured to the image on the screen, which had shifted into an overhead view of the city below them.</p><p>"This is the major city on that planet." The AI explained, and another image appeared next to the first one, "And this is the topographical map of New Sanctuary, before the city was destroyed and Draco VIII was glassed in 2530. Barring some changes due to the recent battle, they're the exact same city." Gerald overlapped the two images as he finished.</p><p>Kre'lye blinked rapidly in surprise. "You're sure about this?"</p><p>"I've gone over the data, ten thousand times. This is accurate. And there's more." Another image popped into existence, this one showcased the power plant where Theta team had found that Reaper artifact.</p><p>"This power station, and the nearby beach and seawall, are an almost exact replica of a similar station on UNSC Earth, on the coast of Zanzibar. From what little intel I've been able to gather, Private Philips used to spend time at the beach here while on leave."</p><p>Kre'lye walked over to the viewport and stared at the planet, utterly bewildered by everything the AI had just told him. The fact that human-made structures existed on this planet didn't surprise him (the Ancients were fascinated with the human species, considering they were in almost every universe) but the fact that this world seemed to be almost tailor-made for ODST Private Jacob Philips was rather unusual to say the least.</p><p>"We'll figure this all out after we find him." The captain said, turning to look at the sensor officer. "Lieutenant, have you been able to find him?"</p><p>"We're still unable to pinpoint their position, sir." The human male responded, "Something keeps bouncing the Warthog signal and human life signs around the planet. We're still trying to narrow it down."</p><p>Kre'lye sighed. This had been a common problem since they arrived; sensors had often been erratic everytime they scanned the world below them. Diagnostics had come up with no issues, so it was likely something on the planet that kept messing with their long-range scanners.</p><p>"Keep searching." The captain ordered, "And alert me if anything changes." The Bothan turned to leave, but Gerald's voice stopped him.</p><p>"Sir, Shadow Team has just made an important discovery. You'll want to hear this."</p><hr/><p>"Where are we going exactly?" Philips asked.</p><p>"Somewhere that'll allow us to go home." Toni replied, eyes focused on the road.</p><p>"And how do you know this?" Philips said, curiousity and suspicion tinging his voice.</p><p>"From some of the files inside that bunker." Toni responded, his tone suggesting that he didn't want to talk about it.</p><p>Taking the hint, Philips kept his thoughts to himself. But that didn't stop his mind from questioning all the information he had just recieved. He had just found his superior officer, and said officer had apparently been able to find a way for them to get off the planet. It sounded too good to be true. But as much as Philips wanted to return home, he also wanted to know what was happening here, and how his mother was involved.</p><p>His musings were interrupted by a static-filled message emerging from the Warthog's radio.</p><p>"<em>This is- of the- public star- broadcasting- message for- ilips. This- looped record- UNSC E-band- aiting your reply-ver</em>."</p><p>Captain Toni punched the radio, turning the feed off.</p><p>"What the hell, Captain-"</p><p>"Those Covie bastards are trying to trick us. Do you not get that Private?" Toni yelled. There was a tense silence before Philips spoke again.</p><p>"I understand that sir, but shouldn't we-"</p><p>"Philips, I know you've had a rough few days, but I am in command here! Understand?!" It took a second before Philips responded.</p><p>"Yes, sir." He muttered.</p><p>Satisfied, Toni turned his attention back to driving, seemingly unaware of the suspicious glare Philips was sending his way. He could have sworn he had heard his name during that transmission, but why would Toni think that the Covenant are behind that? The Captain seemed to be hiding something and using the Covenant as a scapegoat. The Private chose to follow Toni for now, but he would be keeping a close eye on him.</p><p>The Warthog drove off through the wilderness, as a female figure watched them from a rock. Soon, it would all be over. The female vanished into the wind.</p><hr/><p>Captain Toni's POV</p><p>Unknown amount of time earlier.</p><p>"Corporal Benedict, what's your status? Over." Static greeted him. "Michael, do you read me?" Sighing, Toni tried to contact the others.</p><p>"Doc, what's your position? Respond now!" Silence responded. "Philips, sound off!"</p><p>Nothing. He had been trying to contact his team for hours now, but all he got was static. Sighing, the Captain looked at his surroundings. He had woken up in the middle of this forest, with no idea what had happened to the rest of his squad.</p><p>Choosing a direction, the Captain made his way through the dense foliage and soon came across a bunker in the middle of the woods. Noticing that the doorway was wide open, Toni cautiously made his way through the bare hallways of the facility, determined to find something that could explain where he was.</p><p>As he was walking through one of the corridors, Toni suddenly heard a barrage of whispering voices coming from all around him.</p><p>"Hello? Is someone here?" Toni yelled, then mentally kicked himself for giving away his position. Regardless, the cacophony of whispers seemed to have no intention of letting up, so he continued down the hallway until he reached the entrance to some sort of office, whispers disappearing as he passed through the threshold.</p><p>The only furnishings in this room was a desk with a computer. Walking over to the terminal, Toni was surprised to find that it was active. Keying through several files, one caught his eye, titled; 'Elisa Philips.' Activating it, he discovered that it was a personnel file.</p><p>Something in his memory clicked, and Toni remembered overhearing conversations between his squadmates, about Colonel Elisa Philips, the mother of Private Jacob Philips, who apparently disappeared when he was a child. Curiousity piqued, the Captain read through the file, but found that most of it was blacked out.</p><p>'Like ONI all over again.' He thought. Coming across her status, he was surprised to find that it listed her as KIA. Before Toni could dig any deeper, movement at the door caught his eye, causing him to pull out his battle rifle and aim it at the entryway.</p><p>Carefully exiting the room, Toni returned to the hallway, constantly scanning the area with his VISR. Turning the corner, he found a dead body in green armor splayed out in front of him. As he approached the corpse, an inhuman howling filled the halls and the ambient lighting flickered out.</p><p>When the light returned, the body had disappeared, but the howling hadn't. Spinning towards the source, Toni found the green-armored figure standing right behind him, its hands having morphed into claws.</p><p>The captain let off a burst from his rifle, but his aim was wild, completely missing the lunging monster. After that, his vision became hazy, and the last thing that Toni heard was a short conversation.</p><p>"Will this be enough?" A demonic voice questioned.</p><p>"He will be sufficient for our purposes." A female voice replied, "Let's begin."</p><p>Everything went black.</p>
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